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The History of Civilization 
Edited by C. K. OcpeN, M.A. 


The History of Witchcraft 


The History of Civilization 


Edited by C. K. OGDEN, M.A. 
HARRY ELMER BARNES, Ph.D., Consulting American Editor. 


The volumes already published are : 


*SOCIAL ORGANIZATION . rs : : » WHER. Riversai ieee 
*A\ THOUSAND YEARS OF THE TARTARS . : Professor E. H. Parker 
*THE THRESHOLD OF THE PACIFIC . : ; ; .. Dre 
THE EARTH BEFORE HISTORY ; : - : Edmond Perrier 
PREHISTORIC MAN : : ; : ‘ . Jacques de Morgan 
LANGUAGE . ‘ : t , : ‘ Professor J. Vendryes 
*HIstTORY AND LITERATURE OF CHRISTIANITY . Professor P. de Labriolle 
*CHINA AND EUROPE ; : : : : : Adolf Reichwein 
*LONDON LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY . . M. Dorothy George 
A GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION TO History . Professor Lucien Febvre 
*THE DAWN OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION . . V. Gordon Childe, B.Litt. 
MESOPOTAMIA: BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN CIVILIZATION Prof. L. Delaporte 
*THE AEGEAN CIVILIZATION : : / . Professor Gustave Glotz 
*THE PEOPLES OF ASIA . : ; : : L. H. Dudley Buxton 
*THE MIGRATION OF SYMBOLS . ‘ ; ; Donald A. Mackenzie 
*LIFE AND WoORK IN MODERN EUROPE . . Professor Georges Renard 
* TRAVEL AND TRAVELLERS OF THE MIDDLE AGES Edited by Prof.A. P. Newton 
*CIVILIZATION OF THE SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS : Rafael Karsten 
RACE AND HISTORY ; P : : : . Professor E. Pittard 
FROM TRIBE TO EMPIRE : : : : . Professor A. Moret 
*A HisTORY OF WITCHCRAFT . ‘ ; ‘ . Montague Summers 
* ANCIENT GREECE AT WORK . A ; : : Professor G. Glotz 
' THE FORMATION OF THE GREEK PEOPLE ‘ . Professor A. Jardé 
*THE ARYANS P : ; : : V. Gordon Childe, D.Litt. 
PRIMITIVE ITALY . : ; ; : : Professor Léon Homo 
RoME THE LAW-GIVER . ; / ; : Professor J. Declareuil 
THE ROMAN SPIRIT , : : ‘ ; . Professor A. Grenier 


In preparation : 


*LIFE AND WoRK IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE , . Professor Boissonade 
*A History oF MEDICINE : ? : : . C. G. Cumston, M.D. 
ANCIENT PERSIA AND IRANIAN CIVILIZATION . . Professor C. Huart 
* ANCIENT ROME AT WORK ‘ : - ‘ a Paul Louis 
THE LIFE OF BUDDHA . : é . EE. H. Thomas, Dine 


* An asterisk indicates that the volume does not form part of the French 
collection ‘‘ L’ Evolution de VHumanité.”’ 


A complete classified list of the SERIES will be found at the end of this volume. 





PLA TEs] 





THE DEPARTURE FOR THE SABBAT 


. 


1ers 


id Ten 


Dav 


[ frontispiece 





By, we 
“OL oeiga. gw 


The History of Witchcraft an 
Demonology 


By ity 
MONTAGUE SUMMERS 


Initiati sunt Beelphegor : et comederunt sacrificia mortuorum. 

Et immolauerunt filios suos, et filias suas demoniis. 

Et effuderunt sanguinem innocentem. Et fornicati sunt in 
adinuentionibus suis.— PSALM cv. 





NEW YORK 
ALFRED A. KNOPF 
1926 


To 
PATRICK, 


in memory of Loreto and Our Lady’s Holy House, as also 
of Our Lady’s miraculous Picture at Campocavallo, Our 
Lady of Pompeu, La Consolata of Turin, Consolatrix 
A fflictorum in 8. Caterina ai Funari at Rome, la Santissima 
Vergine del Parto of S. Agostino, the Madonna della Strada 
at the Gesu, La Nicopeja of San Marco at Venice, Notre- 
Dame-de-Bonne-Nouvelle of Rennes, Notre-Dame de 
Grande Puissance of Lamballe, and all the Italian and 
French Madonnas at whose shrines we have worshipped. 


Printed in Great Britain at 
The Mayflower Press, Plymouth. William Brendon & Son, Ltd. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 
INTRODUCTION . Z ° ° : : : oa Vil 
CHAPTER 
THE Witch: Heretic anpD ANARCHIST : : : 1 
II. THe WorsuHipe of tHE Wirco ., ; - : se hans | 
III. Demons anp Famiriars ; - : : , Aparna. 
IV. THE SasBar i ; é : ‘ d i oa WA, 
V. THe WitcH In Hoty Writ , , : ‘ 2ebis 
VI. Drasoric Possession AnD MopErn Spreirism ‘ oi LOS 
VII, Tae Wircu in Dramatic LirERATURE , : - 276 
BIBLIOGRAPHY . : : ; : : : . 315 


INDEX s : i ; P ‘ : i mares fy 


PLATE 


I, 


iE 


III. 


VILE 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


THE DEPARTURE FOR THE SABBAT (David Teniers) vontispiece 
PAGE 


THE WorLpD Tosr AT TENNIS. 4to., 1620 . - 8 


(Facsimile title-page.) 


COMPENDIVM MALEFICARVM. MEDIOLANI, 1626 * 82 


(Facsimile title-page of second edition.) 


OFF TO THE SABBAT (Queverdo) - - - ~ 120 
THE SABBAT (Ziarnko) - - - - - - 144 
THE WItcH oF ENDOoR (W. Faithorne) - ~ - 178 


(Frontispiece to Sadducismus Triumphatus, 1687) 
S. JAMEs VISITS THE WARLOCK’s DEN (Pieter Breughel) 250 


THE WITcH OF EDMONTON. 4to., 1658 = - - 290 


(Facsimile title-page.) 


INTRODUCTION 


Tue history of Witchcraft, a subject as old as the world and 
as wide as the world,—since I understand for the present 
purpose by Witchcraft, Sorcery, Black Magic, Necromancy, 
secret Divination, Satanism, and every kind of malign 
occult art,—at once confronts the writer with a most difficult 
problem. He is called upon to exercise a choice, and his 
dilemma is by no means made the easier owing to the fact 
he is acutely conscious that whichever way he may decide 
he is laying himself open to damaging and not impertinent 
criticism. Since it is essential that his work should be com- 
prised within a reasonable compass he may elect to attempt 
a bird’s-eye view of the whole range from China to Peru, 
from the half-articulate, rhythmic incantations of primitive 
man at the dawn of life to the last spiritistic fad and mani- 
festation at yesterday’s séance or circle, in which case his 
pages will most certainly be thin and often superficial: or 
again he may rather concentrate upon one or two features 
in the history of Witchcraft, deal with these at some length, 
stress some few forgotten facts whose importance is now 
neglected and unrealized, utilize new material the result of 
laborious research, but all this at the expense of inevitable 
omissions, of hiatus, of self-denial, the avoidance of fascinat- 
ing by-ways and valuable inquiry, of silence when he would 
fain be entering upon discussion and exposition. With a full 
sense of its drawbacks and danger I have selected the second 
method, since in dealing with a topic such as Witchcraft 
where there is no human hope of recording more than a 
tithe of the facts I believe it is better to give a documented 
account of certain aspects rather than to essay a somewhat 
huddled and confused conspectus of the whole, for such, 
indeed, even at best is itself bound to have no inconsiderable 
gaps and lacune, however carefully we endeavour to make 
it complete. I am conscious, then, that there is scarcely a 
paragraph in the present work which might not easily be 


Vil 


vill INTRODUCTION 


expanded into a page, scarcely a page which might not 
to its great advantage become a chapter, and certainly not 
a chapter that would not be vastly improved were it elabor- 
ated to a volume. 

Many omissions are, as I have said, a necessary conse- 
quence of the plan I have adopted ; or, indeed, I venture to 
suppose, of any other plan which contemplates the treatment 
of so universal a subject as Witchcraft. I can but offer my 
apologies to these students who come to this History to find 
details of Finnish magic and the sorceries of Lapland, who 
wish to inform themselves concerning Tohungaism among 
the Maoris, Hindu devilry and enchantments, the Bersekir 
of Iceland, Siberian Shamanism, the blind Pan Sus and 
Mutangs of Korea, the Chinese Wu-po, Serbian lycanthropy, 
negro Voodoism, the dark lore of old Scandinavia and Islam. 
I trust my readers will believe that I regret as much as any 
the absence of these from my work, but after all in any 
human endeavour there are practical limitations of space. 

In a complementary and companion volume I am intend- 
ing to treat the epidemic of Witchcraft in particular localities, 
the British Isles, France, Germany, Italy, New England, and 
other countries. Many famous cases, the Lancashire witch- 
trials, the activities of Matthew Hopkins, Gilles de Rais, 
Gaufridi, Urbain Grandier, Cotton Mather and the Salem 
sorceries, will then be dealt with and discussed in some detail. 

It is a surprising fact that amongst English writers Witch- 
craft in Europe has not of recent years received anything like 
adequate attention from serious students of history, who 
strangely fail to recognize the importance of this tragic 
belief both as a political and a social factor. Magic, the 
genesis of magical cults and ceremonies, the ritual of primitive 
peoples, traditional superstitions, and their ancillary lore, 
have been made the subject of vast and erudite studies, 
mostly from an anthropological and folk-loristic point of view, 
but the darker side of the subject, the history of Satanism 
seems hardly to have been attempted. 

Possibly one reason for this neglect and ignorance lies 
in the fact that the heavy and crass materialism, which 
was so prominent a feature during the greater part of the 
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in England, intellectually 
disavowed the supernatural, and attempted not without some 


INTRODUCTION | 1X 


success to substitute for religion a stolid system of respectable 
morality. Since Witchcraft was entirely exploded it would, 
at best, possess merely an antiquarian interest, and even so, 
the exhumation of a disgusting and contemptible super- 
stition was not to be encouraged. It were more seemly to 
forget the uglier side of the past. This was the attitude 
which prevailed for more than a hundred and fifty years, 
and when Witchcraft came under discussion by such narrowly 
prejudiced and inefficient writers as Lecky or Charles Mackay 
they are not even concerned to discuss the possibility of 
the accounts given by the earlier authorities, who, as they 
premise, were all mistaken, extravagant, purblind, and 
misled. The cycle of time has had its revenge, and this 
rationalistic superstition is dying fast. The extraordinary 
vogue of and immense adherence to Spiritism would alone 
prove that, whilst the widespread interest that is taken in 
mysticism is a yet healthier sign that the world will no 
longer be content to be fed on dry husks and the chaff of 
straw. And these are only just two indications, and by no 
means the most significant, out of many. 

It is quite impossible to appreciate and understand the 
true lives of men and women in Elizabethan and Stuart 
England, in the France of Louis XIII and his son, in the 
Italy of the Renaissance and the Catholic Reaction—to 
name but three countries and a few definite periods—unless 
we have some realization of the part that Witchcraft played 
in those ages amid the affairs of these kingdoms. All classes 
were concerned from Pope to peasant, from Queen to cottage 
gill. 

Accordingly as actors are ‘“‘the abstracts and_ brief 
chronicles of the time” I have given a concluding chapter 
which deals with Witchcraft as seen upon the stage, mainly 
concentrating upon the English theatre. This review has 
not before been attempted, and since Witchcraft was so 
formidable a social evil and so intermixed with all stations 
of life it is obvious that we can find few better contemporary 
illustrations of it than in the drama, for the playwright 
ever had his finger upon the public pulse. Until the develop- 
ment of the novel it was the theatre alone that mirrored 
manners and history. 

There are many general French studies of Witchcraft of 


me INTRODUCTION 


the greatest value, amongst which we may name such 
standard works as Antoine-Louis Daugis, T'raité sur la magie, 
le sortilége, les possessions, obsessions et maléfices, 1732 ; 
Jules Garinet, Histoire de la Magie en France depuis le com- 
mencement de la monarchie jusqu’a nos jours, 1818 ; Michelet’s 
famous La Sorciére ; Alfred Maury, La Magie et l Astrologie, 
8rd edition, 1868; L’Abbé Lecanu, Histoire de Satan ; Jules 
Baissac, Les grands Jours de la Sorcellerie, 1890 ; Theodore de 
Cauzons, La Magie et la Sorcellerie en France, 4 vols., 1910, 
etc. 

In German we have Eberhard Hauber’s Bibliotheca Magica ; 
Roskoff’s Geschichte des Teufels, 1869; Soldan’s Geschichte 
der Hexenprozesse (neu bearbeitet von Dr. Heinrich Heppe), 
1880; Friedrich Leitschuch’s Bettrege zur Geschichte des 
Hexenwesens in Franken, 1883; Johan Dieffenbach’s Der 
Hexenwahn vor und nach der Glaubensspaltung in Deutschland, 
1886; Schreiber’s Die Hexenprozesse im Breisgau; Ludwig 
Rapp’s Die Hexenprozesse und ihre Gegner aus Tirol ; Joseph 
Hansen’s Quellen und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte des 
Hexenwahns, 1901; and very many more admirably docu- 
mented studies. 

In England the best of the older books must be recom- 
mended with necessary reservations. Thomas Wright’s 
Narratives of Sorcery and Magic, 2 vols., 1851, is to be com- 
mended as the work of a learned antiquarian who often 
referred to original sources, but it is withal sketchy and can 
hardly satisfy the careful scholar. Some exceptionally good 
writing and sound, clear, thinking are to be met with in 
Dr. F. G. Lee’s The Other World, 2 vols., 1875 ; More Glimpses 
of the World Unseen, 1878; Glimpses in the Twilight, 1885 ; 
and Sight and Shadows, 1894, all of which deserve to be far 
more widely known, since they well repay an unhurried and 
repeated perusal. 

Quite recent work is represented by Professor Wallace 
Notestein’s History of Witchcraft in England from 1558 to 
1718, published in 1911. This intimate study of a century 
and a half concentrates, as its title tells, upon England alone. 
It is supplied with ample and useful appendixes. In respect 
of the orderly marshalling of his facts, garnered from the 
trials and other sources—no small labour—Professor Note- 
stein deserves a generous meed of praise ; his interpretation 


INTRODUCTION xl 


of the facts and his deductions may not unfairly be criticized. 
Although his incredulity must surely now and again be shaken 
by the cumulative force of reiterated and corroborative 
evidence, nevertheless he refuses to admit even the possibility 
that persons who at any rate affected supernatural powers 
held clandestine meetings after nightfall in obscure and lonely 
places for purposes and plots of their own. If human testi- 
mony is worth anything at all, unless we are to be more 
Pyrrhonian than the famous Dr. Marphurius himself who 
would never say, ‘‘ Je suis venu; mais; Il me semble que 
je suis venu,”’ when in 1612 Roger Nowell had swooped down 
on the Lancashire coven and carried off Elizabeth Demdike 
with three other beldames to durance vile in Lancaster 
Castle, Elizabeth Device summoned the whole Pendle gang 
to her home at Malking Tower, in order that they might 
discuss the situation and contrive the delivery of the prisoners. 
As soon as they had forgathered, they all sat down to dinner, 
and had a good north country spread of beef, bacon, and 
roast mutton. Surely there is nothing very remarkable 
in this; and the evidence as given in Thomas Potts’ famous 
narrative, The Wonderfull Discoverte of Witches in the countie 
of Lancaster (London, 1613), bears the very hall-mark and 
impress of truth: ‘“‘ The persons aforesaid had to their 
dinners Beefe, Bacon, and roasted Mutton; which Mutton 
(as this Examinates said brother said) was of a Wether of 
Christopher Swyers of Barley: which Wether was brought 
in the night before into this Examinates mothers house by 
the said Iames Deuice, the Examinates said brother: and 
in this Examinates sight killed and eaten.” But Professor 
Notestein will none of it. He writes: ‘“‘ The concurring 
evidence in the Malking Tower story is of no more compelling 
character than that to be found in a multitude of Continental 
stories of witch gatherings which have been shown to be the 
outcome of physical or mental pressure and of leading 
questions. It seems unnecessary to accept even a sub- 
stratum of fact’ (p. 124). In the face of such sweeping 
and dogmatic assertion mere evidence is no use at all. For 
we know that the Continental stories of witch gatherings are 
with very few exceptions the chronicle of actual fact. It 
must be confessed that such feeble scepticism, which re- 
peatedly mars his summary of the witch-trials, is a serious 


xii INTRODUCTION 


blemish in Professor Notestein’s work, and in view of his 
industry much to be regretted. 

Miss M. A. Murray does not for a moment countenance 
any such summary dismissal and uncritical rejection of 
evidence. Her careful reading of the writers upon Witch- 
craft has justly convinced her that their statements must 
be accepted. Keen intelligences and shrewd investigators 
such as Gregory XV, Bodin, Guazzo, De Lancre, D’Espagnet, 
La Reynie, Boyle, Sir Matthew Hale, Glanvill, were neither 
deceivers nor deceived. The evidence must stand, but 
as Miss Murray finds herself unable to admit the logical 
consequence of this, she hurriedly. starts away with an 
arbitrary, “‘the statements do not bear the construction 
put upon them,” and in The Witch-Cult in Western Europe 
(1921) proceeds to develop a most ingenious, but, as I show, 
a wholly untenable hypothesis. Accordingly we are not 
surprised to find that many of the details Miss Murray has 
collected in her painstaking pages are (no doubt uncon- 
sciously) made to square with her preconceived theory. 
However much I may differ from Miss Murray in my outlook, 
and our disagreement is, I consider, neither slight nor super- 
ficial, I am none the less bound to commend her frank and 
courageous treatment of many essential particulars which 
are all too often suppressed, and in consequence a false and 
counterfeit picture has not unseldom been drawn. 

So vast a literature surrounds modern Witchcraft, for 
frankly such is Spiritism in effect, that it were no easy task 
to mention even a quota of those works which seem to throw 
some real light upon a complex and difficult subject. Among 
many which I have found useful are Surbled, Spirttualisme 
et spiritisme and Spirites et médiums; Gutberlet, Der 
Kampf um die Seele; Dr. Marcel Viollet, Le spiritisme 
dans ses rapports avec la folie; J. Godfrey Raupert, Modern 
Spiritism and Dangers of Spiritualism ; the Very Rev. Alexis 
Lépicier, O.S.M., The Unseen World; the Rev. A. V. Miller, 
Sermons on Modern Spiritualism ; Lapponi, Hypnotism and 
Spiritism ; the late Monsignor Hugh Benson’s Spiritualism 
(Lhe History of Religions); Elliot O’Donnell’s The Menace 
of Spiritualism ; and Father Simon Blackmore’s Spiritism : 
Facts and Frauds, 1925. My own opinion of this movement 
has been formed not only from reading studies and mono- 


INTRODUCTION xiii 


graphs which treat of every phase of the question from all 
points of view, but also by correspondence and discussion 
with ardent devotees of the cult, and, not least, owing to the 
admissions and warnings of those who have abandoned these 
dangerous practices, revelations made in such circumstances, 
however, as altogether to preclude even a hint as to their 
definite import and scope. 

The History of Witchcraft is full of interest to the theo- 
logian, the psychologist, the historian, and cannot be ignored. 
But it presents a very dark and terrible aspect, the details 
of which in the few English studies that claim serious atten- 
tion have almost universally been unrecorded, and, indeed, 
deliberately burked and shunned. Such treatment is un- 
worthy and unscholarly to a degree, reprehensible and 
dishonest.. 

The work of Professor Notestein, for example, is gravely 
vitiated, owing to the fact that he has completely ignored 
the immodesty of the witch-cult and thus extenuated its 
evil. He is, indeed, so uncritical, I would even venture to 
say so unscholarly, as naively to remark (p. 300): ‘“*‘ No 
one who has not read for himself can have any notion of 
the vile character of the charges and confessions embodied in 
the witch pamphlets. It is an aspect of the question which 
has not been discussed in these pages.’’ Such a confession 
is amazing. One cannot write in dainty phrase of Satanists 
and the Sabbat. However loathly the disease the doctor 
must not hesitate to diagnose and to probe. This ostrich-like 
policy is moral cowardice. None of the Fathers and great 
writers of the Church were thus culpably prudish. When 
S. Epiphanius has to discuss the Gnostics, he describes in 
detail their abominations, and pertinently remarks: ‘‘ Why 
should I shrink from speaking of the things you do not fear 
to do? By speaking thus, I hope to fill you with horror of 
the turpitudes you commit.”” And 8S. Clement of Alexandria 
says: “‘I am not ashamed to name the parts of the body 
wherein the foetus is formed and nourished; and why, indeed, 
should I be, since God was not ashamed to create them ? ”’ 

A few authors have painted the medizval witch in pretty 
colours on satin. She has become a somewhat eccentric but 
kindly old lady, shrewd and perspicacious, with a knowledge 
of healing herbs and simples, ready to advise and aid her 


X1V INTRODUCTION 


neighbours who are duller-witted than she; not disdaining 
in return a rustic present of a flitch, meal, a poult or eggs 
from the farm-yard. And so for no very definite reason she 
fell an easy prey to fanatic judges and ravening inquisitors, 
notoriously the most ignorant and stupid of mortals, who 
caught her, swum her in a river, tried her, tortured her, and 
finally burned her at the stake. Many modern writers, more 
sceptical still, frankly relegate the witch to the land of 
nursery tales and Christmas pantomime ; she never had any 
real existence other than as Cinderella’s fairy godmother or 
the Countess D’Aulnoy’s Madame Merluche. 

I have even heard it publicly asserted from the lecture 
platform by a professed student of the Elizabethan period 
that the Elizabethans did not, of course, as a matter of fact 
believe in Witchcraft. It were impossible to imagine that 
men of the intellectual standard of Shakespeare, Ford, 
Jonson, Fletcher, could have held so idle a chimera, born of 
sick fancies and hysteria. And his audience acquiesced with 
no little complacency, pleased to think that the great names 
of the past had been cleared from the stigma of so degrading 
and gross a superstition. A few uneducated peasants here and 
there may have been morbid and ignorant enough to dream 
of witches, and the poets used these crones and hags with 
effect in ballad and play. But as for giving any actual 
eredence to such fantasies, most assuredly our great Eliza- 
bethans were more enlightened than that! And, indeed, 
Witchcraft is a phase of and a factor in the manners of the 
seventeenth century, which in some quarters there seems a 
tacit agreement almost to ignore. 

All this is very unhistorical and very unscientific. In the 
following pages I have endeavoured to show the witch as 
she really was—an evil liver; a social pest and parasite ; 
the devotee of a loathly and obscene creed; an adept at 
poisoning, blackmail, and other creeping crimes ; a member 
of a powerful secret organization inimical to Church and 
State ; a blasphemer in word and deed ; swaying the villagers 
by terror and superstition; a charlatan and a quack some- 
times; a bawd; an abortionist; the dark counsellor of 
lewd court ladies and adulterous gallants; a minister to 
vice and inconceivable corruption; battening upon the 
filth and foulest passions of the age. 


INTRODUCTION XV 


My present work is the result of more than thirty years’ 
close attention to the subject of Witchcraft, and during this 
period I have made a systematic and intensive study of the 
older demonologists, as I am convinced that their first-hand 
evidence is of prime importance and value, whilst since their 
writings are very voluminous and of the last rarity they have 
universally been neglected, and are allowed to accumulate 
thick dust undisturbed. They are, moreover, often difficult 
to read owing to technicalities of phrase and vocabulary. 
Among the most authoritative I may cite a few names: 
Sprenger (Malleus Maleficarum); Guazzo; Bartolomeo 
Spina, O.P.; John Nider, O.P.; Grilland; Jerome Mengo ; 
Binsfeld; Gerson; Ulrich Molitor; Basin; Murner; 
Crespet; Anania; Henri Boguet; Bodin; Martin Delrio, 
§.J.; Pierre le Loyer ; Ludwig Elich ; Godelmann; Nicolas 
Remy; Salerini; Leonard Vair; De Lancre; Alfonso de 
Castro; Sebastian Michaelis, O.P.; Sinistrari; Perreaud; 
Dom Calmet; Sylvester Mazzolini, O.P. (Prierias). When 
we supplement these by the judicial records and the legal 
codes we have an immense body of material. In all that I 
have written I have gone to original sources, and it has been 
my endeavour fairly to weigh and balance the evidence, to 
judge without heat or prejudice, to give the facts and the 
comment upon them with candour, sincerity, and truth. 
At the same time I am very well aware that several great 
scholars for whom I have the-sincerest personal regard and 
whose attainments I view with a very profound respect will 
differ from me in many particulars. 

I am conscious that the rough list of books which I have 
drawn up does not deserve to be dignified with the title, 
Bibliography. It is sadly incomplete, yet should it, however 
inadequate, prove helpful in the smallest way it will have 
justified its inclusion. I may add that my Biblical quotations, 
save where expressly otherwise noted, are from the Vulgate 
or its translation into English commonly called the Douai 
Version. 


= 


In Festo 8S. Teresita, V. 
1925. 





THE 
HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


CHAPTER I 
Tye Witcu: HERETIC AND ANARCHIST 


** SORCIER est celuy qui par moyens Diaboliques sciemment 
s’efforce de paruenir 4 quel que chose.”’ (‘‘ A sorcerer is one 
who by commerce with the Devil has a full intention of 
attaining his own ends.) With these words the profoundly 
erudite jurisconsult Jean Bodin, one of the acutest and most 
strictly impartial minds of his age, opens his famous De la 
Demonomanie des Sorciers,1 and it would be, I imagine, 
hardly possible to discover a more concise, exact, compre- 
hensive, and intelligent definition of a Witch. The whole 
tremendous subject of Witchcraft, especially as revealed in 
its multifold and remarkable manifestations throughout every 
district of Southern and Western Europe from the middle of 
the thirteenth until the dawn of the eighteenth century,? 
has it would seem in recent times seldom, if ever, been 
candidly and fairly examined. The only sound sources of 
information are the contemporary records ; the meticulously 
detailed legal reports of the actual trials ; the vast mass of 
pamphlets which give eye-witnessed accounts of individual 
witches and reproduce evidence uerbatim as told in court ; 
and, above all, the voluminous and highly technical works 
of the Inquisitors and demonologists, holy and reverend 
divines, doctors utriusque iuris, hard-headed, slow, and sober 
lawyers,—learned men, scholars of philosophic mind, the 
most honourable names in the universities of Europe, in the 
forefront of literature, science, politics, and culture ; monks 
who kept the conscience of kings, pontiffs ; whose word would 
B 


2 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


set Europe aflame and bring an emperor to his knees at 
their gate. 

It is true that Witchcraft has formed the subject of a not 
inconsiderable literature, but it will be found that inquirers 
have for the most part approached this eternal and terrible 
chapter in the history of humanity from biassed, although 
wholly divergent, points of view, and in consequence it is 
often necessary to sift more or less thoroughly their partial 
presentation of their theme, to discount their unwarranted 
commentaries and illogical conclusions, and to get down in 
time to the hard bed-rock of fact. 

In the first place we have those writings and that interest 
which may be termed merely antiquarian. Witchcraft is 
treated as a curious by-lane of history, a superstition long 
since dead, having no existence among, nor bearing upon, 
the affairs of the present day. It is a field for folk-lore, where 
one may gather strange flowers and noxious weeds. Again, 
we often recognize the romantic treatment of Witchcraft. 
"Tis the Eve of S. George, a dark wild night, the pale moon 
can but struggle thinly through the thick massing clouds. 
The witches are abroad, and hurtle swiftly aloft, a hideous 
covey, borne headlong on the skirling blast. In delirious 
tones they are yelling foul mysterious words as they go: 
“Har! Har! Har! Altri! Altri!’ To some peak of the 
Brocken or lonely Cevennes they haste, to the orgies of the 
Sabbat, the infernal Sacraments, the dance of Acheron, the 
sweet and fearful fantasy of evil, ‘‘ Vers les stupres impurs 
et les baisers immondes.’’? Hell seems to vomit its foulest 
dregs upon the shrinking earth ; a loathsome shape of obscene 
horror squats huge and monstrous upon the ebon throne ; 
the stifling air reeks with filth and blasphemy; faster and 
faster whirls the witches’ lewd lavolta; shriller and shriller 
the cornemuse screams; and then a wan grey light flickers 
in the Eastern sky ; a moment more and there sounds the 
loud clarion of some village chanticleer ; swift as thought 
the vile phantasmagoria vanishes and is sped, all is quiet and 
still in the peaceful dawn. 

But both the antiquarian and the romanticist reviews of 
Witchcraft may be deemed negligible and impertinent so far 
as the present research is concerned, however entertaining 
and picturesque such treatment proves to many readers, 


THE WITCH: HERETIC AND ANARCHIST 8 


affording not a few pleasant hours, whence they are able to 
draw highly dramatic and brilliantly coloured pictures of 
old time sorceries, not to be taken too seriously, for these 
things never were and never could have been.‘ 

The rationalist historian and the sceptic, when inevitably 
confronted with the subject of Witchcraft, chose a charmingly 
easy way to deal with these intensely complex and intricate 
problems, a flat denial of all statements which did not fit, or 
could not by some means be squared with, their own narrow 
prejudice. What matter the most irrefragable evidence, 
which in the instance of any other accusation would un- 
hesitatingly have been regarded as final. What matter the 
logical and reasoned belief of centuries, of the most cultured 
peoples, the highest intelligences of Europe? Any appeal 
to authority is, of course, useless, as the sceptic repudiates 
all authority—save his own. Such things could not be. We 
must argue from that axiom, and therefore anything which 
it is impossible to explain away by hallucination, or hysteria, 
or auto-suggestion, or any other vague catch-word which 
may chance to be fashionable at the moment, must be 
uncompromisingly rejected, and a note of superior pity, to 
candy the so suave yet crushingly decisive judgement, has 
proved of great service upon more occasions than one. Why 
examine the evidence? It is really useless and a waste of 
time, because we know that the allegations are all idle and 
ridiculous ; the ‘‘ facts ” sworn to by innumerable witnesses, 
which are repeated in changeless detail century fter 
century in every country, in every town, simply did not take 
place. How so absolute and entire falsity of these facts can 
be demonstrated the sceptic omits to inform us, but we must 
unquestioningly accept his infallible authority in the face 
of reason, evidence, and truth. 

Yet supposing that with clear and candid minds we proceed 
carefully to investigate this accumulated evidence, to inquire 
into the circumstances of a number of typical cases, to 
compare the trials of the fifteenth century in France with 
the trials of the seventeenth century in England, shall we 
not find that amid obvious accretions of fantastic and super- 
fluous detaila certain very solid substratum of a permanent and 
invaried character is unmistakably to be traced throughout 
the whole? This cannot in reason be denied, and here we 


4 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


have the core and the enduring reality of Witchcraft and the 
witch-cult throughout the ages. 

There were some gross superstitions; there were some 
unbridled imaginations; there was deception, there was 
legerdemain; there was phantasy ; there was fraud; Henri 
Boguet seems, perhaps, a trifle credulous, a little eager to 
explain obscure practices by an instant appeal to the super- 
normal; Brother Jetzer, the Jacobin of Berne, can only have 
been either the tool of his superiors or a cunning impostor ; 
Matthew Hopkins was an unmitigated scoundrel who preyed 
upon the fears of the Essex franklins whilst he emptied their 
pockets; Lord Torphichen’s son was an idle mischievous boy 
whose pranks not merely deluded both his father and the 
Rev. Mr. John Wilkins, but caused considerable mystification 
and amaze throughout the whole of Calder ; Anne Robinson, 
Mrs. Golding’s maid, and the two servant lasses of Baldarroch 
were prestidigitators of no common sleight and skill; and 
all these examples of ignorance, gullibility, malice, trickery, 
and imposture might easily be multiplied twenty times over 
and twenty times again, yet when every allowance has been 
made, every possible explanation exhausted, there persists 
a congeries of solid proven fact. which cannot be ignored, 
save indeed by the purblind prejudice of the rationalist, and 
cannot be accounted for, save that we recognize there were 
and are individuals and organizations deliberately, nay, even 
enthusiastically, devoted to the service of evil, greedy of 
such emotions and experiences, rewards the thraldom of 
wickedness may bring. 

The sceptic notoriously refuses to believe in Witchcraft, 
but a sanely critical examination of the evidence at the 
witch-trials will show that a vast amount of the modern 
vulgar incredulity is founded upon a complete misconception 
of the facts, and it may be well worth while quite briefly to 
review and correct some of the more common objections that 
are so loosely and so repeatedly maintained. There are many 
points which are urged as proving the fatuous absurdity and 
demonstrable impossibility of the whole system, and yet there 
is not one of these phenomena which is not capable of a 
satisfactory, and often a simple, elucidation. Perhaps the 
first thought of a witch that will occur to the man in the 
street is that of a hag on a broomstick flying up the chimney 


THE WITCH: HERETIC AND ANARCHIST 5 


through the air. This has often been pictorially impressed 
on his imagination, not merely by woodcuts and illustrations 
traditionally presented in books, but by the brush of great 
painters such as Queverdo’s Le Départ au Sabbat, Le Départ 
pour le Sabbat of David Teniers, and Goya’s midnight fantasies. 
The famous Australian artist, Norman Lindsay, has a picture 
To The Sabbat® where witches are depicted wildly rushing 
through the air on the backs of grotesque pigs and hideous 
goats. Shakespeare, too, elaborated the idea, and ‘‘ Hover 
through the fog and filthy air’? has impressed itself upon 
the English imagination. But to descend from the airy 
realms of painting and poetry to the hard ground of actuality. 
Throughout the whole of the records there are very few 
instances when a witness definitely asserted that he had seen 
a witch carried through the air mounted upon a broom or 
stick-of any kind, and on every occasion there is patent and 
obvious exaggeration to secure an effect. Sometimes the 
witches themselves boasted of this means of transport to 
impress their hearers. Boguet records that Claudine Boban, 
a young girl whose head was turned with pathological vanity, 
obviously a monomaniac who must at all costs occupy the 
centre of the stage and be the cynosure of public attention, 
confessed that she had been to the Sabbat, and this was 
undoubtedly the case; but to walk or ride on horseback to 
the Sabbat were far too ordinary methods of locomotion, 
melodrama and the marvellous must find their place in her 
account and so she alleged: “that both she and her mother 
used to mount on a broom, and so making their exit by the 
chimney in this fashion they flew through the air to the 
Sabbat.”® Julian Cox (1664) said that one evening when 
she was in the fields about a mile away from the house 
‘there came riding towards her three persons upon three 
Broom-staves, born up about a yard and a half from the 
ground.’ There is obvious exaggeration here; she saw 
two men and one woman bestriding brooms and leaping high 
in the air. They were, in fact, performing a magic rite, a 
figure of a dance. So it is recorded of the Arab crones that 
** In the time of the Munkidh the witches rode about naked 
on a stick between the graves of the cemetery of Shaizar.’’® 
Nobody can refuse to believe that the witches bestrode sticks 
and poles and in their ritual capered to and fro in this manner, 


6 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


a sufficiently grotesque, but by no means an impossible, 
action. And this bizarre ceremony, evidence of which—with 
no reference to flying through the air—is frequent, has been 
exaggerated and transformed into the popular superstition 
that sorcerers are carried aloft and so transported from place 
to place, a wonder they were all ready to exploit in proof 
of their magic powers. And yet it is not impossible that there 
should have been actual instances of levitation. For, out- 
side the lives of the Saints, spiritistic séances afford us 
examples of this supernormal phenomenon, which, if human 
evidence is worth anything at all, are beyond all question 
proven. 

As for the unguents wherewith the sorcerers anointed 
themselves we have the actual formule for this composition, 
and Professor A. J. Clark, who has examined these,® con- 
siders that it is possible a strong application of such 
liniments might produce unwonted excitement and even 
delirium. But long ago the great demonologists recognized 
and laid down that of themselves the unguents possessed no 
such properties as the witches supposed. ‘‘ The ointment 
and lotion are just of no use at all to witches to aid their 
journey to the Sabbat,” is the well-considered opinion of 
Boguet who,!° speaking with confident precision and finality, 
on this point is in entire agreement with the most sceptical 
of later rationalists. 

The transformation of witches into animals and the extra- 
ordinary appearance at their orgies of “the Devil” under 
many a hideously unnatural shape, two points which have 
been repeatedly held up to scorn as self-evident impossibilities 
and proof conclusive of the untrustworthiness of the evidence 
and the incredibility of the whole system, can both be easily 
and fairly interpreted in a way which offers a complete and 
convincing explanation of these prodigies. The first meta- 
morphosis, indeed, is mentioned and fully explained in the 
Liber Peenitentialis™ of S. Theodore, seventh Archbishop of 
Canterbury (668-690), capitulum xxvii, which code includes 
under the rubric De Idolatria et Sacrilegio ‘“‘ qui in Kalendas 
Ianuarii in ceruulo et in uitula uadit,’”’ and prescribes : 
‘Tf anyone at the Kalends of January goes about as a stag 
or a bull; that is, making himself into a wild animal and 
dressing in the skin of a herd animal, and putting on the 


THE WITCH: HERETIC AND ANARCHIST 7 


heads of beasts; those who in such wise transform them- 
selves into the appearance of a wild animal, penance for 
three years because this is devilish.”” These ritual masks, 
furs, and hides, were, of course, exactly those the witches 
at certain ceremonies were wont to don for their Sabbats. 
There is ample proof that “the Devil” of the Sabbat was 
very frequently a human being, the Grand Master of the 
district, and since his officers and immediate attendants were 
also termed ‘‘ Devils’ by the witches some confusion has 
on occasion ensued. In a few cases where sufficient details 
are given it is possible actually to identify ‘‘ the Devil”? by 
name. Thus, among a list of suspected persons in the reign 
of Elizabeth we have “ Ould Birtles, the great devil, Roger 
Birtles and his wife, and Anne Birtles.’’?!2 The evil William, 
Lord Soulis, of Hermitage Castle, often known as ‘“ Red 
Cap,” was “‘the Devil’? of a coven of sorcerers. Very 
seldom “the Devil’? was a woman. In May, 1569, the 
Regent of Scotland was present at S. Andrews ‘“‘ quhair a 
notabill sorceres callit Nicniven was condemnit to the death 
and burnt.’? Now Nicniven is the Queen of Elphin, the 
Mistress of the Sabbat, and this office had evidently been 
filled by this witch whose real name is not recorded. On 
8 November, 1576, Elizabeth or Bessy Dunlop, of Lyne, in 
the Barony of Dalry, Ayrshire, was tried for sorcery, and she 
confessed that a certain mysterious Thom Reid had met her 
and demanded that she should renounce Christianity and 
her baptism, and apparently worship him. There can be 
little doubt that he was ‘‘the Devil” of a coven, for the 
original details, which are very full, all point to this. He 
seems to have played his part with some forethought and 
skill, since when the accused stated that she often saw him 
in the churchyard of Dalry, as also in the streets of Edin- 
burgh, where he walked to and fro among other people and 
handled goods that were exposed on bulks for sale without 
attracting any special notice, and was thereupon asked why 
she did not address him, she replied that he had forbidden 
her to recognize him on any such occasion unless he made 
a sign or first actually accosted her. She was “ convict and 
burnt.’’!3 In the case of Alison Peirson, tried 28 May, 1588, 
“the Devil’’ was actually her kinsman, William Sympson, 
and she “‘ wes conuict of the vsing of Sorcerie and Witchcraft, 


8 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


with the Inuocatioun of the spreitis of the Deuill; speciallie 
in the visioune and forme of ane Mr. William Sympsoune, 
hir cousing and moder-brotheris-sone, quha sche affermit 
wes ane grit scoller and doctor of medicin.”!4 Conutcta et 
combusta is the terse record of the margin of the court-book. 

One of the most interesting identifications of ‘‘ the Devil” 
occurs in the course of the notorious trials of Dr. Fian and 
his associates in 1590-1. As is well known, the whole crew 
was in league with Francis Stewart, Earl of Bothwell, and 
even at the time well-founded gossip, and something more 
than gossip, freely connected his name with the spells, 
Sabbats, and orgies of the witches. He was vehemently 
suspected of the black art; he was an undoubted client of 
warlocks and poisoners ; his restless ambition almost overtly 
aimed at the throne, and the witch covens were one and all 
frantically attempting the life of King James. There can be 
no sort of doubt that Bothwell was the moving force who 
energized and directed the very elaborate and numerous 
organization of demonolaters, which was almost accidentally 
brought to light, to be fiercely crushed by the draconian 
vengeance of a monarch justly frightened for his crown and 
his life. 

In the nineteenth century both Albert Pike of Charleston 
and his successor Adriano Lemmi have been identified upon 
abundant authority as being Grand Masters of societies 
practising Satanism, and as performing the hierarchical 
functions of “‘ the Devil’ at the modern Sabbat. 

God, so far as His ordinary presence and action in Nature 
are concerned, is hidden behind the veil of secondary causes, 
and when God’s ape, the Demon, can work so successfully 
and obtain not merely devoted adherents but fervent wor- 
shippers by human agency, there is plainly no need for him to 
manifest himself in person either to particular individuals or 
at the Sabbats, but none the less, that he can do so and has 
done so is certain, since such is the sense of the Church, and 
there are many striking cases in the records and trials which 
are to be explained in no other way. 

That, as Burns Begg pointed out, the witches not unseldom 
** seem to have been undoubtedly the victims of unscrupulous 
and designing knaves, who personated Satan’?! is no 
palliation of their crimes, and therefore they are not one 


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THE WITCH: HERETIC AND ANARCHIST 9 


whit the less guilty of sorcery and devil-worship, for this 
was their hearts’ intention and desire. Nor do I think that 
the man who personated Satan at their assemblies was so 
much an unscrupulous and designing knave as himself a 
demonist, believing intensely in the reality of his own dark 
powers, wholly and horribly dedicated and doomed to the 
service of evil. 

We have seen that the witches were upon occasion wont 
to array themselves in skins and ritual masks and there is 
complete evidence that the hicrophant at the Sabbat, when 
a human being played that réle, generally wore a corre- 
sponsive, if somewhat more elaborate, disguise. Nay more, 
as regards the British Isles at least—and it seems clear that 
in other countries the habit was very similar—we possess a 
pictorial representation of ‘‘ the Devil’ as he appeared to 
the witches. During the famous Fian trials Agnes Sampson 
confessed: “* The deuell wes cled in ane blak goun with ane 
blak hat vpon his head. . . . His faice was terrible, his noise 
lyk the bek of ane egle, greet bournyng eyn; his handis and 
leggis wer herry, with clawes vpon his handis, and feit lyk 
the griffon.”!6 In the pamphlet Newes from Scotland, 
Declaring the Damnable life and death of Doctor Fian!7 we 
have a rough woodcut, repeated twice, which shows “the 
Devil” preaching from the North Berwick pulpit to the 
whole coven of witches, and allowing for the crudity 
of the draughtsman and a few unimportant differences of 
detail—the black gown and hat are not portrayed—the 
demon in the picture is exactly like the description Agnes 
Sampson gave. It must be remembered, too, that at the 
Sabbat she was obviously in a state of morbid excitation, 
in part due to deep cups of heady wine, the time was mid- 
night, the place a haunted old church, the only light a few 
flickering candles that burned with a ghastly blue flame. 

Now “the Devil’ as he is shown in the Newes from 
Scotland illustration is precisely the Devil who appears upon 
the title-page of Middleton and Rowley’s Masque, The World 
tost at Tennis, 4to, 1620. This woodcut presents an episode 
towards the end of the masque, and here the Devil in tradi- 
tional disguise, a grim black hairy shape with huge beaked 
nose, monstrous claws, and the cloven hoofs of a eriffin, in 
every particular fits the details so closely observed by Agnes 


10 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


Sampson. I have no doubt that the drawing for the masque 
was actually made in the theatre, for although this kind of 
costly and decorative entertainment was almost always 
designed for court or some great nobleman’s house we know 
that The World tost at Tennis was produced with consider- 
able success on the public stage “‘ By the Prince his Seruants.” 
The dress, then, of ‘“‘the Devil’? at the Sabbats seems 
frequently to have been an elaborate theatrical costume, 
such as might have been found in the stock wardrobe of a 
rich playhouse at London, but which would have had no 
such associations for provincial folk and even simpler 
rustics. | 

From time to time the sceptics have pointed to the many 
cases upon record of a victim’s sickness or death following 
the witch’s curse, and have incredulously inquired if it be 
possible that a malediction should have such consequences. 
Whilst candidly remarking that personally I believe there 
is power for evil and even for destruction in such a bane, 
that a deadly anathema launched with concentrated hate 
and all the energy of volition may bring unhappiness and 
fatality in its train, I would—since they will not allow this— 
answer their objections upon other lines. When some person 
who had in any way annoyed the witch was to be harmed 
or killed, it was obviously convenient, when practicable, to 
follow up the symbolism of the solemn imprecation, or it 
might be of the melted wax image riddled with pins, by 
a dose of subtly administered poison, which would bring 
about the desired result, whether sickness or death; and 
from the evidence concerning the witches’ victims, who so 
frequently pined owing to a wasting disease, it seems more 
than probable that lethal drugs were continually employed, 
for as Professor A. J. Clark records “‘ the society of witches 
had a very creditable knowledge of the art of poisoning,’’?® 
and they are known to have freely used aconite, deadly 
nightshade (belladonna), and hemlock. 

So far then from the confessions of the witches being mere 
hysteria and hallucination they are proved, even upon the 
most material interpretation, to be in the main hideous and 
horrible fact. 

In choosing examples to demonstrate this I have as yet 
referred almost entirely to the witchcraft which raged from 


THE WITCH: HERETIC AND ANARCHIST 11. 


the middle of the thirteenth to the beginning of the eighteenth 
century, inasmuch as that was the period when the diabolic 
cult reached its height, when it spread as a blight and a 
scourge throughout Europe and flaunted its most terrific 
proportions. But it must not for a moment be supposed, 
as has often been superficially believed, that Witchcraft was 
a product of the Middle Ages, and that only then did authority 
adopt measures of repression and legislate against the 
warlock and the sorceress. If attention has been concentrated 
upon that period it is because during those and the succeed- 
ing centuries Witchcraft blazed forth with unexampled 
virulence and ferocity, that it threatened the peace, nay in 
some degree, the salvation of mankind. But even pagan 
emperors had issued edicts absolutely forbidding goetic 
theurgy, confiscating grimoires (fatidici libri), and visiting 
necromancers with death. In 4.v.c. 721 during the trium- 
virate of Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus, all astrologers and 
charmers were banished.1® Maecenas called upon Augustus 
to punish sorcerers, and plainly stated that those who devote 
themselves to magic are despisers of the gods.2° More than 
two thousand popular books of spells, both in Greek and 
Latin, were discovered in Rome and publicly burned.?! In 
the reign of Tiberius a decree of the Senate exiled all 
traffickers in occult arts; Lucius Pituanius, a notorious 
wizard, they threw from the Tarpeian rock, and another, 
Publius Martius, was executed more prisco outside the 
Ksquiline gate.?? 

Under Claudius the Senate reiterated the sentence of 
banishment: ‘‘De mathematicis Italia pellendis factum 
Senatus consultum, atrox et irritum,” says Tacitus.?* During 
the few months he was emperor Vitellius proceeded with 
implacable severity against all soothsayers and diviners ; 
many of whom, when accused, he ordered for instant execu- 
tion, not even affording them the tritest formality of a 
trial.24 Vespasian, again, his successor, refused to permit 
seryers and enchanters to set foot in Italy, strictly enforcing 
the existent statutes.25 It is clear from all these stringent 
laws, and the list of examples might be greatly extended, 
that although under the Czsars omens were respected, 
oracles were consulted, the augurs honoured, and haruspices 
revered, the dark influences and foul criminality of the 


12 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


reverse of that dangerous science were recognized and its 
professors punished with the full force of repeated legislation. 

M. de Cauzons has expressed himself somewhat vigorously 
when speaking of writers who trace the origins of Witchcraft 
to the Middle Ages: ‘‘ C’est une mauvaise plaisanterie,”’ he 
remarks,2* ‘‘ou une contrevérité flagrante, d’affirmer que 
la sorcellerie naquit au Moyen-Age, et d’attribuer son 
existence 4 l’influence ou aux croyances de l’Eglise.” (It 
is either a silly jest or inept irony to pretend that Witchcraft 
arose in the Middle Ages, to attribute its existence to the 
influence or the beliefs of the Catholic Church.) 

An even more erroneous assertion is the charge which has 
been not infrequently but over-emphatically brought forward 
by partial ill-documented historians to the effect that the 
European crusade against witches, the stern and searching 
prosecutions with the ultimate penalty of death at the stake, 
are entirely due to the Bull Summis desiderantes affectibus, 
5 December, 1484, of Pope Innocent VIII; or that at any 
rate this famous document, if it did not actually initiate the 
campaign, blew to blasts of flame and fury the smouldering 
and half-cold embers. This is most preposterously affirmed 
by Mackay, who does not hesitate to write??: ‘“ There 
happened at that time to be a pontiff at the head of the 
Church who had given much of his attention to the subject 
of Witchcraft, and who, with the intention of rooting out the 
supposed crime, did more to increase it than any other man 
that ever lived. John Baptist Cibo, elected to the papacy 
in 1485,28 under the designation of Innocent VIII, was 
sincerely alarmed at the number of witches, and launched 
forth his terrible manifesto against them. In his celebrated 
bull of 1488, he called the nations of Europe to the rescue 
of the Church of Christ upon earth, ‘imperilled by the arts 
of Satan’’’ which last sentence seems to be a very fair state- 
ment of fact. Lecky notes the Bull of Innocent which, he 
extravagantly declares, “gave a fearful impetus to the 
persecution.’ Dr. Davidson, in a brief but slanderous 
account of this great pontiff, gives angry prominence to his 
severity ‘“‘ against sorcerers, magicians, and witches.’’°° It 
is useless to cite more of these superficial and crooked 
judgements ; but since even authorities of weight and value 
have been deluded and fallen into the snare it is worth while 


THE WITCH: HERETIC AND ANARCHIST 13 


labouring the point a little and stressing the fact that the 
Bull of Innocent VIII was only one of a long series of Papal 
ordinances dealing with the suppression of a monstrous and 
almost universal evil.*4 

The first Papal Bull directly launched against the black 
art and its professors was that of Alexander IV, 13 December, 
1258, addressed to the Franciscan inquisitors. And it is 
worth while here to examine precisely what was the earlier 
connotation of the terms ‘‘ inquisitor”’ and ‘‘ inquisition,” so 
often misunderstood, as our research, though brief, will 
throw a flood of light upon the subject of Witchcraft, and, 
moreover, incidentally will serve to explain how that those 
writers who assign the beginnings of Witchcraft to the 
Middle Ages, although most certainly and even demonstrably 
in error, have at any rate been very subtilely and easily led 
wrong, since sorcery in the Middle Ages was violently 
unmasked and the whole horrid craft then first authori- 
tatively exposed in its darkest colours and most abominable 
manifestations, as had indeed existed from the first, but had 
been carefully hidden and scrupulously concealed. 

By the term Inquisition (inquirere = to look into) is now 
generally understood a special ecclesiastical institution for 
combating or suppressing heresy, and the Inquisitors are the 
officials attached to the said institution, more particularly 
judges who are appointed to investigate the charges of heresy 
and to try the persons brought before them on those charges. 
During the first twelve centuries the Church was loath to 
deal with heretics save by argument and _ persuasion ; 
obstinate and avowed heretics were, of course, excluded from 
her communion, a defection which in the ages of faith, 
naturally involved them in many and great difficulties. 
S. Augustine,*? S. John Chrysostom,*’ S. Isidore of Seville?4 
in the seventh century, and a number of other Doctors and 
Fathers held that for no cause whatsoever should the Church 
shed blood; but, on the other hand, the imperial successors 
of Constantine justly considered that they were obliged to 
have a care for the material welfare of the Church here on 
earth, and that heresy is always inevitably and inextricably 
entangled with attempts on the social order, always anar- 
chical, always political. Even the pagan persecutor Diocletian 
recognized this fact, which heretics, until they obtain the 


14 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


upper hand, have throughout the ages consistently denied 
and endeavoured to disguise. For in 287, less than two 
years after his accession, he sent to the stake the leaders 
of the Manichees; the majority of their followers were 
beheaded, and a few less culpable sent to perpetual forced 
labour in the government mines. Again in 296 he orders 
their extermination (stirpitus amputart) as a sordid, vile, and 
impure sect. So the Christian Cesars, persuaded that the 
protection of orthodoxy was their sacred duty, began to 
issue edicts for the suppression of heretics as being traitors 
and anti-social revolutionaries.?5 But the Church protested, 
and when Priscillian, Bishop of Avila, being found guilty 
of heresy and sorcery,2® was condemned to death by 
Maximus at Trier in 384, S. Martin of Tours addressed the 
Emperor in such plain terms that it was solemnly promised 
the sentence should not be carried into effect. However, 
the pledge was broken, and S. Martin’s indignation was 
such that for a long while he refused to hold communion 
with those who had been in any way responsible for the 
execution, which §S. Ambrose roundly stigmatized as a 
heinous crime.??. Even more crushing were the words of 
Pope S. Siricius, before whom Maximus was fain to humble 
himself in lowliest penitence, and the supreme pontiff 
actually excommunicated Bishop Felix of Trier for his part 
in the deed. 

From time to time heretics were put to death under the 
civil law to which they were amenable, as in 556 when a 
band of Manichees were executed at Ravenna. Pope 
Pelagius I, who was consecrated that very year, when 
Paulinus of Fossombrone, rejecting his authority, openly 
stirred up schism and revolt, merely relegated the recalcitrant 
bishop to a monastery. Saint Cesarius of Arles, who died 
in 547, speaking®® of the punishment to be meted out to 
those who obstinately persevere in overt paganism, recom- 
mends that they should first be remonstrated with and 
reprimanded, that they should if possible be thus persuaded 
of their errors ; but if they persist certain corporal chastise- 
ment is to be given; and in extreme cases a course of 
domestic discipline, the cutting of the hair close as a mark 
of indignity and confinement within doors under restraint, 
may be adopted. There is no hint of anything more than 


THE WITCH: HERETIC AND ANARCHIST 15 


private measures, no calling in of any ecclesiastical authority, 
far less an appeal to any punitive tribunal. 

In the days of Charlemagne the aged Elipandus, Arch- 
bishop of Toledo, taught an offshoot of the Nestorian heresy, 
Adoptionism, a crafty but deadly error, to which he won the 
slippery dialectician Felix of Urgel. Felix, as a Frankish 
prelate, was summoned to Aix-la-Chapelle. A synod con- 
demned his doctrine and he recanted, only to retract his 
words and to reiterate his blasphemies. He was again 
condemned, and again he recanted. But he proved shifty 
and tricksome to the last. For after his death Agobar of 
Lyons found amongst his papers a scroll asserting that of 
this heresy he was fully persuaded, in spite of any contra- 
dictions to which he might hypocritically subscribe. Yet 
Felix only suffered a short detention at Rome, whilst no 
measures. seem to have been taken against Elipandus, who 
died in his errors. It was presumably considered that 
orthodoxy could be sufficiently served and vindicated by the 
zeal of such great names as Beatus, Abbot of Libana; 
Etherius, Bishop of Osma; 8S. Benedict of Aniane; and the 
glorious Alcuin.®° 

Some forty years later, about the middle of the ninth 
century, Gothescalch, a monk of Fulda, caused great scandal 
by obstinately and impudently maintaining that Christ had 
not died for all mankind, a foretaste of the Calvinistic heresy. 
He was condemned at the Synods of Mainz in 848, and of 
Kiersey-sur-Oise in 849, being sentenced to flogging and 
imprisonment, punishments then common in monasteries for 
various infractions of the rule. In this case, as particularly 
flagrant, it was Hinemar, Archbishop of Rheims, a prelate 
notorious for his severity, who sentenced the culprit to 
incarceration. But Gothescalch had by his pernicious 
doctrines been the cause of serious disturbances; and his 
inflammatory harangues had excited tumults, sedition, and 
unrest, bringing odium upon the sacred habit. The sentence 
of the Kiersey Synod ran: ‘‘ Frater Goteschale .. . quia 
et ecclesiastica et ciuilia negotia contra propositum et nomen 
monachi conturbare iura ecclesiastica presumpsisti, duris- 
simis uerberibus te cagistari et secundum ecclesiasticas 
regulas ergastulo retrudi, auctoritate episcopali decernimus.”’ 
(Brother Gothescalch, . . . because thou hast dared—con- 


16 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


trary to thy monastic calling and vows—to concern thyself 
in worldly as well as spiritual businesses and hast violated all 
ecclesiastical law and order, by our episcopal authority we 
condemn thee to be severely scourged and according to the 
provision of the Church to be closely imprisoned.) 

From these instances it will be seen that the Church 
throughout all those centuries of violence, rapine, invasion, 
and war, when often primitive savagery reigned supreme and 
the most hideous cruelty was the general order of the day, 
dealt very gently with the rebel and the heretic, whom she 
might have executed wholesale with the greatest ease; no 
voice would have been raised in protest save that of her 
own pontiffs, doctors, and Saints ; nay, rather, such repres- 
sion would have been universally applauded as eminently 
proper and just. But it was the civil power who arraigned 
the anarch and the misbeliever, who sentenced him to 
death. 

About the year 1000, however, the venom of Manicheism 
obtained a new footing in the West, where it had died out 
early in the sixth century. Between 1030-40 an important 
Manichean community was discovered at the Castle of 
Monteforte, near Asti, in Piedmont. Some of the members 
were arrested by the Bishop of Asti and a number of noble- 
men in the neighbourhood, and upon their refusal to retract 
the civil arm burned them. Others, by order of the Arch- 
bishop of Milan, Ariberto, were brought to that city since 
he hoped to convert them. They answered his efforts by 
attempts to make proselytes; whereupon Lanzano, a 
prominent noble and leader of the popular party, caused the | 
magistrates to intervene and when they had been taken 
into the custody of the State they were executed without 
further respite. For the next two hundred years Manicheism 
spread its infernal teaching in secret until, towards the 
year 1200, the plague had infected all Italy and Southern 
Europe, had reached northwards to Germany, where it was 
completely organized, and was not unknown in England, 
since as early as 1159 thirty foreign Manichees had privily 
settled here. They were discovered in 1166, and handed over 
to the secular authorities by the Bishops of the Council of 
Oxford. In high wrath Henry II ordered them to be 
scourged, branded in the forehead, and cast adrift in the cold 


THE WITCH: HERETIC AND ANARCHIST 17 


of winter, straightly forbidding any to succour such vile 
criminals, so all perished from cold and exposure. Mani- 
cheism furthermore split up into an almost infinite number 
of sects and systems, prominent amongst which were the 
Cathari, the Aldonistz and Speronistz, the Concorrezenses 
of Lombardy, the Bagnolenses, the Albigenses, Pauliciani, 
Patarini, Bogomiles, the Waldenses, Tartarins, Beghards, 
Pauvres de Lyon. 

It must be clearly borne in mind that these heretical 
bodies with their endless ramifications were not merely 
exponents of erroneous religious and intellectual beliefs by: 
which they morally corrupted all who came under their 
influence, but they were the avowed enemies of law and 
order, red-hot anarchists who would stop at nothing to gain 
their ends. Terrorism and secret murder were their most 
frequent weapons. In 1199 the Patarini followers of Ermanno 
of Parma and Gottardo of Marsi, two firebrands of revolt, 
foully assassinated S. Peter Parenzo, the governor of Orvieto. 
On 6 April, 1252, whilst returning from Como to Milan, as 
he passed through a lonely wood 8S. Peter of Verona was 
struck down by the axe of a certain Carino, a Manichean 
bravo, who had been hired to the deed.*® By such acts they 
sought to intimidate whole districts, and to compel men’s 
allegiance with blood and violence. The Manichzan system 
was in truth a simultaneous attack upon the Church and the 
State, a desperate but well-planned organization to destroy 
the whole fabric of society, to reduce civilization to chaos. 
In the first instance, as the Popes began to perceive the 
momentousness of the struggle they engaged the bishops to 
stem the tide. At the Council of Tours, 1168, Alexander III 
called upon the bishops of Gascony to take active measures 
for the suppression of these revolutionaries, but at the 
Lateran Council of 1179 it was found these disturbers of public 
order had sown such sedition in Languedoc that an appeal 
was made to the secular power to check the evil. In 1184 
Lucius III issued from Verona his Bull Ad Abolendam which 
expressly mentions many of the heretics by name, Cathari, 
Patarini, Humiliati, Pauvres de Lyon, Pasagians, Josephins, 
Aldoniste. The situation had fast developed and become 
serious. Heretics were to be sought out and suitably 
punished; by which, however, capital punishment is not 

* 


18 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


intended. Innocent III, although adding nothing essential 
to these regulations yet gave them fuller scope and clearer 
definition. In his Decretals he precisely speaks of accusation, 
denunciation, and inquisition, and it is obvious that these 
measures were necessary in the face of a great secret society 
aiming at nothing less than the destruction of the established 
order, for all the sectaries were engaged upon the most 
zealous propaganda, and their adherents had spread like 
a network over the greater part of Europe. The members 
bore the title of ‘‘ brother’ and “ sister,’? and had words 
and signs by which the initiate could recognize one another 
without betraying themselves to others. Ivan de Narbonne, 
who was converted from this heresy, in a letter to Giraldus, 
Archbishop of Bordeaux, as quoted by Matthew of Paris, 
says that in every city where he travelled he was always 
able to make himself known by signs.” 

It was necessary that the diocesan bishops should be 
assisted in their heavy task of tracking down heretics, and 
accordingly the Holy See had resource to legates who 
were furnished with extraordinary powers to cope with so 
perplexing a situation. In 1177 as legate of Alexander It, 
Peter, Cardinal of San Crisogono, at the particular request 
of Count Raymond V, visited the Toulouse district to check 
the rising tide of Catharist doctrine.** In 1181, Henry, 
Abbot of Clairvaux, who had been in his suite, now Cardinal 
of Albano, as legate of the same Pope, received the sub- 
mission of various heretical leaders, and, so extensive were 
his powers, solemnly deposed the Archbishops of Lyons and 
Narbonne. In 1203 Peter of Castelnau and Raoul were 
acting at Toulouse on behalf of Innocent III, seemingly with 
plenipotentiary authority. The next year Arnauld Amaury, 
Abbot of Citeaux, was joined to them to form a triple tribunal 
with absolute power to judge heretics in the provinces of 
Aix, Arles, Narbonne, and the adjoining dioceses. At the 
death of Innocent III (1216) there existed an organization 
to search out heretics; episcopal tribunals at which often 
sat an assessor (the future inquisitor) to watch the conduct 
of the case; and above all the legate to whom he might 
make a report. The legate, from his position, was naturally 
a prelate occupied with a vast number of urgent affairs— 
Arnauld Amaury, for example, was absent for a considerable 


THE WITCH: HERETIC AND ANARCHIST 19 


time to take part in the General Chapter at Cluny—and 
gradually more and more authority was delegated to the 
assessor, who insensibly developed into the Inquisitor, a 
special but permanent judge acting in the name of the Pope, 
by whom he was invested with the right and the duty to 
deal legally with offences against the Faith. And as just at 
this time there came into being two new Orders, the Domini- 
cans and Franciscans, whose members by their theological 
training and the very nature of their vows seemed eminently 
fitted to perform the inquisitorial task with complete success, 
absolutely uninfluenced by any worldly motive, it is natural 
that the new officials should have been selected from these 
Orders, and, owing to the importance attached by the 
Dominicans to the study of divinity, especially from their 
learned ranks. 

It is very obvious why the Holy Sce so sagaciously pre- 
ferred to assign the prosecution of heretics, a matter of the 
first importance, to an extraordinary tribunal rather than 
leave the trials in the hands of the bishops. Without taking 
into consideration the fact that these new duties would have 
seriously encroached upon, if not wholly absorbed, the time 
and activities of a bishop, the prelates who ruled most 
dioceses were the subject of some monarch with whom they 
might have come in conflict on many a delicate point which 
could easily be conceived to arise, and the result of such 
disagreement would have been fraught with endless political 
difficulties and internal embarrassments. A court of religious, 
responsible to the Pope alone, would act more fairly, more 
freely, without fear or favour. The profligate Philip I of 
France, for example, during his long, worthless, and dis- 
honoured reign (1060-1108), by his evil courses drew upon 
himself the censure of the Church, whereupon he banished 
the Bishop of Beauvais and revoked the decisions of the 
episcopal courts.44 In a letter*® to William, Count of 
Poitiers, Pope 8. Gregory VII energetically declares that if 
the King does not cease from molesting the bishops and 
interfering with their judicature a sentence of excommunica- 
tion will be launched. In another letter the same pontiff 
complains of the disrespect shown to the ecclesiastical 
tribunals, and addressing the French bishops he cries: 
‘Your king, who sooth to say should be termed not a king 


20 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


but a cruel tyrant, inspired by Satan, is the head and cause 
of these evils. For he has notoriously passed all his days in 
foulest crimes, in seeking to do wickedness and to ensue it.’’*® 
The conflict of the bishops of a realm with an unworthy and 
evil monarch is a commonplace of history. These troubles 
could scarcely arise in the case of courts forane. 

The words ‘inquisition’? and ‘“‘inquisitors”’ began 
definitely to acquire their accepted signification in the earlier 
half of the thirteenth century. Thus in 1235 Gregory IX 
writes to the Archbishop of Sens: ‘*‘ Know then that we 
have charged the Provincial of the Order of Preachers in 
this same realm to nominate certain of his brethren, who are 
best fitted for so weighty a business, as Inquisitors that they 
may proceed against all notorious evildoers in the aforesaid 
realm . . . and we also charge thee, dear Brother, that thou 
shouldest be instant and zealous in this matter of establishing 
an Inquisition by the appointment of those who seem to be 
best fitted for such a work, and let thy loins be girded, 
Brother, to fight boldly the battles of the Lord.’ *” In 1246 
Innocent IV wrote to the Superiors of the Franciscans giving 
them leave to recall at will: ‘‘ those brethren who have 
been sent abroad to preach the Mystery of the Cross of Christ, 
or to seek out and take measure against the plague sore 
of heresy.”’ #8 

All the heresies, and the Secret Societies of heretics, which 
infested Europe during the Middle Ages were Gnostic, and 
even more narrowly, Manichzan in character. The Gnostics 
arose almost with the advent of Christianity as a School 
or Schools who explained the teachings of Christ by blending 
them with the doctrines of pagan fantasts, and thus they 
claimed to have a Higher and a Wider Knowledge, the 
Tyecrs, the first exponent of which was unquestionably 
Simon Magus. ‘“‘ Two problems borrowed from heathen 
philosophy,”’ says Mansel,*® ‘‘ were intruded by Gnosticism 
on the Christian revelation, the problem of absolute existence, 
and the problem of the Origin of Evil.”’ The Gnostics denied 
the existence of Free-will, and therefore Evil was not the 
result of Man’s voluntary transgression, but must in some 
way have emanated from the Creator Himself. Arguing on 
these lines the majority asserted that the Creator must have 
been a malignant power, Lord of the Kingdom of Darkness, 


THE WITCH: HERETIC AND ANARCHIST 21 


opposed to the Supreme and Ineffable God. This doctrine 
was taught by the Gnostic sects of Persia, which became 
deeply imbued with the religion of Zoroaster, who assumed 
the existence of two original and independent Powers of Good 
and of Evil. Each of these Powers is of equal strength, and 
supreme in his own dominions, whilst constant war is waged 
between the two. This doctrine was particularly held by the 
Syrian Gnostics, the Ophites, the Naasseni, the Perate, the 
Sethians, amongst whom the serpent was the principal | 
symbol. As the Creator of the world was evil, the Tempter, 
the Serpent, was the benefactor of man. In fact, in some 
creeds he was identified with the Logos. The Cainites carried 
out the Ophite doctrines to their fullest logical conclusion. 
Since the Creator, the God of the Old Testament, is evil all 
that is commended by the Scripture must be evil, and 
conversely all that is condemned therein is good. Cain, 
Korah, the rebels, are to be imitated and admired. The one 
true Apostle was Judas Iscariot. This cult is very plainly 
marked in the Middle Ages among the Luciferians; and 
Cainite ceremonies have their place in the witches’ Sabbat.>° 

All this Gnostic teaching was summed up in the gospel 
of the Persian Mani, who, when but a young man of 
twenty-six, seems first to have proclaimed in the streets 
and bazaars of Seleucia-Ctesiphon his supposed message on 
Sunday, 20 March, 242, the coronation festival of Shapur I. 
He did not meet with immediate success in his own country, 
but here and there his ideas took deep root. In 276-277, 
however, he was seized and crucified by the grandson of 
Shapur, Bahram I, his disciples being relentlessly pursued. 
Whenever Manichees were discovered they were brought to 
swift justice, executed, held up to universal hatred and 
contempt. They were considered by Moslems as not merely 
Unbelievers, the followers of a false impostor, but unnatural 
and unsocial, a menace to the State. It was for no light 
cause that the Manichee was loathed and abhorred both by 
faithful Christian and by those who proclaimed Mohammed 
as the true prophet of Allah. But later Manicheism spread 
in every direction to an extraordinary degree, which may 
perhaps be accounted for by the fact that it is in some sense 
a synthesis of the Gnostic philosophies, the theory of two 
eternal principles, good and evil, being especially emphasized, 


22 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


Moreover, the historical Jesus, ‘‘ the Jewish Messias, whom 
the Jews crucified,” was ‘‘ a devil, who was justly punished 
for interfering in the work of the Avon Jesus,” who was 
neither born nor suffered death. As time went on, the 
elaborate cosmogony of Mani disappeared, but the idea that 
the Christ must be repudiated remained. And logically, then, 
worship is due to the enemy of Christ, and a sub-sect, the 
Messalians or Euchites, taught that divine honours must be 
paid to Satan, who is further to be propitiated by means of 
every possible outrage done to Christ. This, of course, is 
plain and simple Satanism openly avowed. Carpocrates even 
went so far as to aggravate the teaching of the Cainites, for 
he made the performance of every species of sin forbidden 
in the Old Testament a solemn duty, since this was the 
completest mode of showing defiance to the Evil Creator and 
Ruler of the World. This doctrine was wholly that of 
medieval witches, and is flaunted by modern Satanists. 
Although the Manichees affected the greatest purity, it is 
quite certain that not unchastity but the act of generation 
alone was opposed to their views, secretly they practised the 
most hideous obscenities.°1 The Messalians in particular, 
vaunted a treatise Asceticus, which was condemned by the 
Third General Council of Ephesus (431) as “‘ that filthy book 
of this heresy,’ and in Armenia, in the fifth century, special 
edicts were passed to restrain their immoralities, so that 
their very name became the equivalent for ‘‘ lewdness.”’ The 
Messalians survived unto the Middle Ages as Bogomiles. 

Attention has already been drawn to the striking fact that 
even Diocletian legislated with no small vigour against the 
Manichees, and when we find Valentinian I and his son 
Gratian, although tolerant of other bodies, passing laws of 
equal severity in this regard (372), we feel that such inter- 
diction is especially significant. Theodosius I, by a statute 
of 381, declared Manichees to be without civil rights, and 
incapable of inheriting ; in the following year he condemned 
them to death, and in 389 he sternly directed the rigorous 
enforcement to the letter of these penalties. 

Valentinian IT confiscated their goods, annulled their wills, 
and sent them into exile. Honorius in 399 renewed the 
draconian measures of his predecessors; in 405 he heavily 
fined all governors of provinces or civil magistrates who were 


THE WITCH: HERETIC AND ANARCHIST 238 


slack in carrying out his orders; in 407 he pronounced the 
sect outlaws and public criminals having no legal status 
whatsoever, and in 408 he reiterated the former enactments 
in meticulous detail to afford no loophole of escape. 
Theodosius II (423), again, repeated this legislation, whilst 
Valentinian III passed fresh laws in 425 and 445. Anastasius 
once more decreed the penalty of death, which was even 
extended by Justin and Justinian to converts from Mani-, 
cheism who did not at once denounce their former co- 
religionists to the authorities. This catena of laws which aims 
at nothing less than extermination is of singular moment. 

About 660 arose the Paulicians, a Manichean sect, who 
rejected the Old Testament, the Sacraments, and the Priest- 
hood. In 885 it was realized that the government of this 
body was political and aimed at revolution and red anarchy. 
In 970 John Zimisces fixed their headquarters in Thrace. 
In 1115 Alexis Comnenus established himself during the 
winter at Philippopolis, and avowed his intention of convert- 
ing them, the only result being that the heretics were driven 
westward and spread rapidly in France and Italy. 

The Bogomiles were also Manichees. They openly wor- 
shipped Satan, repudiating Holy Mass and the Passion, 
rejecting Holy Baptism for some foul ceremony of their own, 
and possessing a peculiar version of the Gospel of S. John. 
As Cathari these wretches had their centre for France at 
Toulouse ; for Germany at Cologne; whilst in Italy, Milan, 
Florence, Orvieto, and Viterbo were their rallying-points. 
Their meetings were often held in the open air, on mountains, 
or in the depths of some lone valley; the ritual was very 
secret, but we know that at night they celebrated their 
Eucharist or Consolamentum, when all stood in a circle round 
a table covered with a white cloth and numerous torches 
were kindled, the service being closed by the reading of the 
first seventeen verses of their transfigured gospel. Bread was 
broken, but there is a tradition that the words of consecration 
were not pronounced according to the Christian formula ; 
in some instances they were altogether omitted. 

During the eleventh century, then, there began to spread 
throughout Europe a number of mysterious organizations 
whose adherents, in a secrecy that was all but absolute, 
practised obscure rites embodying their beliefs, the central 


24. THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


feature of which was the adoration of the evil principle, the 
demon. But what is this save Satanism, or in other words 
Witchcraft ? It is true that when these heresies came into 
sharp conflict with the Catholic Church they developed on 
lines which lost various non-essential accretions and Eastern 
subtleties of extravagant thought, but the motive of the 
Manichean doctrines and of Witchcraft is one and the same, 
and the punishment of Manichees and of witches was the 
same death at the stake. The fact that these heretics were 
recognized as sorcerers will explain, as nothing else can, the 
severity of the statutes against them, evidence of no ordinary 
depravity, and early in the eleventh century Manichee and 
warlock are recognized as synonymous. 

The sorcery of the Middle Ages, says Carl Haas, a learned 
and impartial authority, was born from the heresies of earlier 
epochs, and just as Christian authority had dealt with heresy, 
so did it deal with the spawn witchcraft. Both alike are the 
result of doubts, of faithlessness, a disordered imagination, 
pride and presumption, intellectual arrogance ; sick phantasy 
both, they grow and flourish apace in shadow and sin, until 
right reasoning, and sometimes salutary force, are definitely 
opposed to them. The authors of the Malleus Maleficarum 
clearly identify heresy and Witchcraft. When the Prince 
Bishop of Bamberg, John George II Fuchs von Dornheim, 
(1623-33), built a strong prison especially for sorcerers, the 
Drudenhaus, he set over the great door a figure of Justice, 
and inscribed above Vergil’s words: Discite iustitiam moniti 
et non temnere Diuos (Aineid, VI, 620), 

(Behold, and learn to practise right, 

Nor do the blessed Gods despite). 
To the right and the left were engraved upon two panels, 
the one Latin, the other German, two verses from the Bible, 
3 Kings ix. 8, 9; which are Englished as follows: ‘ This 
house shall be made an example of: every one that shall 
pass by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss, and say : Why 
hath the Lord done thus to this land, and to this house ? 
And they shall answer: Because they forsook the Lord their 
God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, 
and followed strange gods, and adored them, and worshipped 
them: therefore hath the Lord brought upon them all this 
evil.” This is a concise summary of the basic reason for the 


THE WITCH: HERETIC AND ANARCHIST 25 


prosecution of witches, the standpoint of Christian authority, 
whose professors justly and logically regarded sorcery as 
being in essence heresy, to be suppressed by the same 
measures, to be punished with the same penalties. 

In connexion with the close correlation between Witch- 
craft and heresy there is a very remarkable fact, the signifi- 
cance of which has—so far as I am aware—never been noted. 
The full fury of prosecution burst over England during the 
first half of the seventeenth century, that is to say, shortly 
after the era of a great religious upheaval, when the work 
of rehabilitation and recovery so nobly initiated by Queen 
Mary I had been wrecked owing to the pride, lust, and 
baseness of her sister. In Scotland, envenomed to the core 
with the poison of Calvin and Knox, fire and cord were seldom 
at rest. It. is clear that heresy had brought Witchcraft 
swiftly in its train. Ireland has ever been singularly free 
from Witchcraft prosecutions, and with the rarest exceptions 
—chiefly, if not solely, the famous Dame Alice Kyteler case 
of 1324—the few trials recorded are of the seventeenth 
century and engineered by the Protestant party. The reason 
for this exemption is plain. Until the stranger forced his 
way into Ireland, heresy had no foothold there. That the 
Irish firmly believed in witches, we know, but the Devil’s 
claws were finely clipped. 

In 1022 a number of Manichees were burned alive by order 
of Robert I. They had been condemned by a Synod at 
Orleans and refused to recant their errors.* A contemporary 
document clearly identifies them with witches, worshippers 
of the Demon, who appeared to them under the form of an 
animal. Other abominable rites are fully set forth, com- 
parable to the pages of Sprenger, Bodin, Boguet, De Lancre, 
Guazzo, andthe rest. The account runs as follows: ‘* Before 
we proceed to other details I will at some length inform 
those who are as yet ignorant of these matters, how that 
food which they call Food from Heaven is made and provided. 
On certain nights of the year they all meet together in an 
appointed house, each one of them carrying a lantern in his 
hand. They then begin to sing the names of various demons, 
as though they were chanting a litany, until suddenly they 
perceive that the Devil has appeared in the midst of them in 
the shape of some animal or other. As he wouldseem to be 


26 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


visible to them all in some mysterious way they immediately 
extinguish the lights, and each one of them as quickly as he 
can seizes upon the woman, who chances to be nearest at 
hand. . . . When a child happens to be born. . . on the 
eighth day they all meet together and light a large fire in 
their midst, and then the child is passed through the fire, 
ceremonially, according to the sacrifices of the old heathen, 
and finally is burnt in the flames. The ashes are collected 
and reserved, with the same veneration as Christians are 
wont to reserve the Blessed Sacrament, and they give those 
who are on the point of death a portion of these ashes as 
if it were the Viaticum. There appears to be such power 
infused by the Devil into the said ashes that a man who belongs 
to these heretics and happens to have tasted even the 
smallest quantity of these ashes can scarcely ever be per- 
suaded to abandon his heresies and to turn his thoughts 
towards the true path. It must suffice to give only these 
details, as a warning to all Christians to take no part in 
these abominations, and God forbid that curiosity should 
lead anybody to explore them,”’’58 

At Forfar, in 1661, Helen Guthrie and four other witches 
exhumed the body of an unbaptised infant, which was buried 
in the churchyard near the south-east door of the church, 
‘and took severall peices thereof, as the feet, hands, a pairt 
of the head, and a pairt of the buttock, and they made a py 
thereof, that they might eat of it, that by this meanes they 
might never make a confession (as they thought) of their 
witchcraftis.’’>¢ 

The belief of 1022 and 1661 is the same, because it is the 
same organization. The very name of the Vaudois, stout 
heretics, survives in Voodoo worship, which is, in effect, 
African fetishism or Witchcraft transplanted to America 
soil. 

In 1028 Count Alduin burned a number of Manichees at 
Angouléme, and the chronicle runs: ‘‘ Interea iussu Alduini 
flammis exuste sunt mulieres malefice extra urbem.’’55 
(About this time certain evil women, heretics, were burned 
without the city by the command of Alduin.) The Templars, 
whose Order was suppressed and the members thereof 
executed on account of their sorceries, were clearly a 
Society of Gnostic heretics, active propagandists, closely 


a 


THE WITCH: HERETIC AND ANARCHIST 27 


connected with the Bogomiles and the Mandsans or 
Johannites.®° 

It is true that in his recent study The Religion of the 
Manichees,®’ Dr. F. G. Buskitt, with a wealth of interesting 
detail and research, has endeavoured to show that the 
Bogomiles, the Cathari, the Albigenses, and other unclean 
bodies only derived fragments of their teaching from Mani- 
cheean sources, and he definitely states ‘‘ I think it misleading 
to call these sects, even the Albigensians, by the name of 
Manichees.”? But in spite of his adroit special pleading the 
historical fact remains ; although we may concede that the 
abominable beliefs of these various Gnostics were perhaps 
a deduction from, or a development of, the actual teaching 
of Mani. Yet none the less their evil was contained in his 
heresy and a logical consequence of it. 

In the early years of this century important discoveries 
of Manichean MSS. have been made. Three or four scientific 
expeditions to Chinese Turkestan brought back some thou- 
sands of fragments, especially from the neighbourhood of a 
town called Turfan. Many of these screeds are written in 
the peculiar script of the Manichees, some of which can be 
deciphered, although unfortunately the newly found docu- 
ments are mere scraps, bits of torn books and rolls, and 
written in languages as yet imperfectly known. Much of the 
new doctrine is of the wildest and most fantastic theosophy, 
and the initiate were, as we know, sufficiently cunning not 
to commit the esoteric and true teachings to writing, but 
preferred that there should be an oral tradition. One 
important piece, the Khuastuanift, i.e. “‘ Confession,” has 
been recovered almost in its entirety. It is in the old 
Turkestan Turkish language, and seems full of the most 
astounding contradictions or paradoxes, a consensus of 
double meanings and subtleties. 

The question is asked whether we ought to consider Mani- 
cheism as an independent religion or a Christian heresy ? 
Eznih of Kolb, the Armenian writer of the fifth century, 
when attacking Zoroastrianism, obviously treats Manicheism 
as a variety of Persian religion. The orthodox documents, 
however, from Mark the Deacon onwards treat Manicheism 
as in the main a Christian heresy and this is assuredly the 
correct view. There is in existence a polemical fragment, a 


28 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


single ill-preserved pair of leaves, in which the Manichean 
writer pours forth horrid blasphemies and vilely attacks those 
who call Mary’s Son (Bar Maryam) the Son of Adonay. 

It may be worth while here to say just a word correcting 
a curious old-fashioned misapprehension which once pre- 
vailed in certain quarters concerning the Albigenses, an 
error of which we occasionally yet catch the echoes, as when 
Mrs. Grenside wrote that the Albigenses were ‘‘a sect of 
the 14th century which, owing to their secret doctrine, 
endured much ecclesiastical persecution.’’>8 The impression 
left, and it is one which was not altogether uncommon some 
seventy years ago, is that the Albigensian was a stern old 
Protestant father, Bible and sword in hand, who defended 
his hearth and home against the lawless brigands spurred on 
to attack him by priestly machinations. Nothing, of course, 
could be further from the truth. The Albigensian was a 
Satanist, a worshipper of the powers of evil, and he would 
have found short shrift indeed, fire and the stake, in Puritan 
England under Cromwell, or in Calvinistic Scotland had his 
practices been even dimly guessed at by the Kirk. As 
Dr. Arendzen well says®®: ‘ Albigensianism was not really 
a heresy against Christianity and the Catholic Church, it 
was a revolt against nature, a pestilential perversion of 
human instinct.”’ 

Towards the end of the nineteenth century a Neo-Gnostic 
Church was formed by Fabre des Essarts, but that great 
pontiff Leo XIII promptly condemned it with fitting severity 
as a recrudescence of the old Albigensian heresy, complicated 
by the addition of new false and impious doctrines. It is 
said still to have a number of unhappy adherents. These 
Neo-Gnostics believe that the world is created by Satan, 
who is a powerful rival to the omnipotence of God. They 
also preach a dangerous communism, speciously masqued 
under some such titles as the ‘‘ Brotherhood of Man” or the 
‘* Brotherhood of Nations.” 

In 1900, after a letter from Joanny Bricaud,®° the patriarch 
of universal Gnosticism at Lyons, where, in 1913, he was 
residing at 8, rue Bugeaud, the Neo-Gnostics joined with the 
Valentinians, a union approved by their pseudo-Council 
of Toulouse in 1908. But some years later Dr. Fugairon of 
Lyons, who adopted the name of Sophronius, amalgamated 


EE OE LL 


THE WITCH: HERETIC AND ANARCHIST 29 


all the branches,with the exception of the Valentinians,under 
the name of the Gnostic Church of Lyons. These, however, 
although excluded, continued to follow their own way of 
salvation, and in 1906 formally addressed a legal declaration 
to the Republican Government defending their religious 
rights of association. Truly might Huysmans tell us that 
Satanism flourished at Lyons, ‘“‘ ott toutes les hérésies sur- 
vivent,”’ “‘ where every heresy pullulates and is green.” 
These Gnostic assemblies are composed of “* perfected ones,”’ 
male and female. The modern Valentinians, it is said, have 
a form of spiritual marriage, bestowing the name of Helen 
upon the mystic bride. The original founder of this sect, 
Valentinus, was, according to 8S. Epiphanius (Hwresis XX XI) 
born in Egypt, and educated at Alexandria. His errors led 
to excommunication and he died in Cyprus, about A.D. 160-— 
161. His heresy is a fantastic medley of Greek and Oriental 
speculation, tinged with some vague colouring of Chris- 
tianity. The Christology of Valentinus is especially confused. 
He seems to have supposed the existence of three redeemers, 
but Christ, the Son of Mary, did not have a real body and 
did not suffer. Even his more prominent disciples, Heracleon, 
Ptolemy, Marcos, and Bardesanes, widely differed from their 
master, as from one another. Many of the writings of these 
Gnostics, and a large number of excerpts from Valentinus’s 
own works yet survive. 

One or two writers of the nineteenth century remarked 
that there seemed to be some connexion between certain 
points of the Sabbat ceremonial and the rites of various 
pagan deities, which is, of course, a perfectly correct observa- 
tion. For we have seen that Witchcraft as it existed in 
Kurope from the eleventh century was mainly the spawn 
of Gnostic heresy, and heresy by its very nature embraced 
and absorbed much of heathendom. In some sense Witchcraft 
was a descendant of the old pre-Christian magic, but it soon 
assumed a slightly different form, or rather at the advent 
of Christianity it was exposed and shown in its real foul 
essence as the worship of the Evil Principle, the Enemy of 
Mankind, Satan. 

It may freely be acknowledged that there are certain 
symbols common to Christianity itself and to ancient 
religions. It would in truth be very surprising if, when 


30 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


seeking to propagate her doctrines in the midst of Greeco- 
Roman civilization, the Church had adopted for her inter- 
course with the people a wholly unknown language, and had 
systematically repudiated everything that until then had 
served to give expression to religious feeling. 

Within the limits imposed by the conventions of race and 
culture, the method of interpreting the emotions of the heart 
cannot be indefinitely varied, and it was natural that the 
new religion should appropriate and incorporate all that 
was good in a ritual much of which only required to be 
rightly interpreted and directed to become the language of 
the Christian soul aspiring to the one True God. Certain 
attitudes of prayer and reverence, the use of incense and of 
lamps burning day and night in the sanctuary, the offering 
of ex-votos as a testimony to benefits received, all these are 
man’s natural expressions of piety and gratitude towards a 
divine power, and it would be strange indeed if their equiva- 
lents were not met with in all religions. 

Cicero tells us that at Agrigentum there was a much- 
venerated statue of Hercules, of which the mouth and chin 
were worn away by the many worshippers who pressed their 
lips to it.6! The bronze foot of the statue of the first Pope, 
S. Peter, in Rome has not withstood any better the pious 
kisses of the faithful. Yet he were a very fool who imagined 
that modern Christians have learned anything from the 
Sicilian contemporaries of Verres. What is true is that the 
same thought in analogous circumstances has found natural 
expression after an interval of centuries in identical actions 
and attitudes. 

Among the Greeks, heroes, reputed to be the mortal sons 
of some divinity, were specially honoured in the city with 
which they were connected by birth and through the benefits 
they had conferred upon it. After death they became the 
patrons and protectors of these towns. Every country, nay, 
almost every village, had such local divinities to whom 
monuments were raised and whom the people invoked in 
their prayers. The centre of devotion was generally the 
hero’s tomb, which was often erected in the middle of the 
agora, the nave of public life. In most cases it was sheltered 
by a building, a sort of chapel known as ypeov. The 
celebrated temples, too, were not infrequently adorned with 


THE WITCH: HERETIC AND ANARCHIST 31 


a great number of cenotaphs of heroes, just as the shrines 
of Saints are honoured in Christian churches.®* More, the 
translations of the bones or ashes of heroes were common 
in Greece. Thus in the archonship of Apsephion, 469 B.c., 
the remains of Theseus were brought from Scyros to Athens, 
and carried into the city amid sacrifices and every demon- 
stration of triumphal joy.®* Thebes recovered from Ilion 
the bones of Hector, and presented to Athens those of 
CEdipus, to Lebadea those of Arcesilaus, and to Megara those 
of Aigialeus.*4 

The analogy between these ancient practices and Chris- 
tianity may be pushed further yet. Just as, in our own 
churches, objects that have belonged to the Saints are 
exposed for the veneration of the faithful, so in the old 
temples visitors were shown divers curiosities whose connexion 
with a god or a hero would command their respect. At 
Minihi Tréguier we may reverence a fragment of the Breviary 
of S. Yves, at Sens the stole of S. Thomas of Canterbury, at 
Bayeux the chasuble of S. Regnobert, in S. Maria Maggiore 
the cincture and veil of S. Scholastica ; so in various localities 
of Greece were exhibited the cittara of Paris, the lyre of 
Orpheus, portions of the ships of Agamemnon and A‘neas. 
Can anything further be needed to prove that the veneration 
of Holy Relics is merely a pagan survival ? 

Superficially the theory seems plausible enough, and yet 
it will not stand a moment before the judgement of history. 
The cultus of the Saints and their Relics is not an outcome 
of ancient hero-worship, but of reverence for the Martyrs, 
and this can be demonstrated without any possibility of 
question. So here we have two very striking parallels, each 
of which has an analogous starting-point, two cults which 
naturally develop upon logical and similar lines, but without 
any interdependence whatsoever. Needless to say, the 
unbalanced folklorist, who is in general far too insufficiently 
equipped for any such inquiry, has rushed in with his theories 
—to his own utter undoing. And so, with regard to Witch- 
craft, there appear in the rites of the Sabbat and other hellish 
superstitions to. be ceremonies which are directly derived 
from heathendom, but this, as a matter of fact, is far 
from the case. Accordingly we recognize that the thesis of 
Miss M. A. Murray in her anthropological study The Witch- 


32 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


Cult in Western Europe,®> although worked out with nice 
ingenuity and no little documentation, is radically and wholly 
erroneous. Miss Murray actually postulates that ‘* under- 
lying the Christian religion was a cult practised by many 
classes of the community ” which “‘ can be traced back to 
pre-Christian times, and appears to be the ancient religion 
of Western Europe.” We are given a full account of the 
chief festivals of this imaginary cult, of its hierarchy, its 
organization, and many other details. The feasts and dances 
—the obscene horrors of the Sabbat—‘“‘ show that it was 
a joyous religion’?! It is impossible to conceive a more 
amazing assertion. Miss Murray continues to say that “‘ as 
such it must have been quite incomprehensible to the gloomy 
Inquisitors and Reformers who suppressed it.” The Re- 
formers, for all their dour severity, perfectly well appreciated 
with what they were dealing, and the Inquisitors, the sons 
of S. Dominic who was boundless in his charity and of 
S. Francis, whose very name breathes Christ-like love to all 
creation, were men of the profoundest knowledge and deepest 
sympathies, whose first duty it was to stamp out the infection 
lest the whole of Society be corrupted and damned. Miss 
Murray does not seem to suspect that Witchcraft was in 
truth a foul and noisome heresy, the poison of the Manichees. 
Her “ Dianic cult,” which name she gives to this “‘ ancient 
religion”? supposed to have survived until the Middle Ages 
and even later and to have been a formidable rival to 
Christianity, is none other than black heresy and the worship 
of Satan, no primitive belief with pre-agricultural rites, in 
latter days persecuted, misinterpreted, and misunderstood. 
It is true that in the Middle Ages Christianity had—not a 
rival but a foe, the eternal enemy of the Church Militant 
against whom she yet contends to-day, the dark Lord of 
that city which is set contrariwise to the City of God, the 
Terrible Shadow of destruction and despair. 

Miss Murray with tireless industry has accumulated a vast 
number of details by the help of which she seeks to build up 
and support her imaginative thesis. Even those that show 
the appropriation by the cult of evil of the more hideous 
heathen practices, both of lust and cruelty, which prevailed 
among savage or decadent peoples, afford no evidence what- 
soever of any continuity of an earlier religion, whilst by far 


THE WITCH: HERETIC AND ANARCHIST 38 


the greater number of the facts she quotes are deflected, 
although no doubt unconsciously, and sharply wrested so as 
to be patent of the signification it is endeavoured to read 
into them. Miss Murray speaks, for example, of witches 
“Who, like the early Christian martyrs, rushed headlong on 
their fate, determined to die for their faith and their God.’’®® 
And later, discussing the ‘‘ Sacrifice of the God,” a theme 
which it is interesting and by no means impertinent to note, 
folklorists have elaborated in the most fanciful manner, 
basing upon the scantiest and quite contradictory evidence 
an abundant sheaf of wildly extravagant theories and fables, 
she tells us that the burning of witches at the hands of the 
public executioner was a “‘ sacrifice of the incarnate deity.” ®? 
One might almost suppose that the condemned went cheer- 
fully and voluntarily to the cruellest and most torturing 
punishment, for the phrase ‘‘ Self-devotion to death”’ is 
used in this connexion. On the contrary, we continually 
find in the witch-trials that the guilty, as was natural, sought 
to escape from their doom by any and every means; by 
flight, as in the case of Gilles de Sillé and Roger de Bricque- 
ville, companions of Gilles de Rais ; by long and protracted 
defences, such as was that of Agnes Fynnie, executed in 
Edinburgh in 1644; by threats and blackmail of influential 
patrons owing to which old Bettie Laing of Pittenween 
escaped scot-free in 1718 ;_ by pleading pregnancy at the trial 
as did Mother Samuel, the Warbois witch, who perished on the 
gallows 7 April, 1598; by suicide as the notorious warlock 
John Reid, who hanged himself in prison at Paisley, in 1697. 

Of the theoretical ‘‘ Sacrifice of the incarnate deity ”’ 
Miss Murray writes: ‘‘ This explanation accounts for the 
fact that the bodies of witches, male or female, were always 
burnt and the ashes scattered; for the strong prejudice 
which existed, as late as the eighteenth century, against any 
other mode of disposing of their bodies ; and for some of the 
otherwise inexplicable occurrences in connexion with the 
deaths of certain of the victims.’’®’ Three instances are 
cited to prove these three statements, but it will be seen 
upon examination that not one of these affords the slightest 
evidence in support of the triple contention. In the first 
place we are informed that ‘‘ in the light of this theory much 
of the mystery which surrounds the fate of Joan of Arc is 


D 


34 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


explained.” How is not divulged, but this is capped by the 
astounding and indecorous assertion that S. Joan of Are 
‘“‘ belonged to the ancient religion, not to the Christian.”’ 
It is superfluous to say that there is not a tittle of 
evidence for such an amazing hypothesis in reference to the 
Saint. 

Gilles de Rais, whose execution is next quoted by Miss 
Murray in support of her postulate, proves a singularly 
unfortunate example. We are told that “like Joan he was 
willing to be tried for his faith,’ by which is meant the 
imaginary ‘“‘Dianiccult.”’ This is a purely gratuitous assertion, 
not borne out in any way by his behaviour at his trial, nor 
by the details of any authoritative account or report of the 
proceedings. Gilles de Rais was hanged on a gibbet above 
a pyre, but when the heat had burned through the rope the 
body was quickly taken up from the blazing wood, and 
afterwards buried in the neighbouring Carmelite church. 
One may compare the execution of Savonarola and his two 
fellow friars on 25 May, 1498. They were strangled at the 
gallows, their bodies committed to the flames, and their 
ashes carefully gathered and thrown into the Arno. Gilles 
de Rais was condemned by three distinct courts; by the 
Holy Inquisition, the presidents being Jean de Malestroit, 
Bishop of Nantes, and Jean Blouyn, vice-inquisitor, O.P., 
S.T.M., on charges of heresy and sorcery ; by the episcopal 
court on charges of sacrilege and the violation of ecclesiastical 
rights ; by the civil court of John V, Duke of Brittany, on 
multiplied charges of murder. 

The third case quoted by Miss Murray is that of Major 
Weir, who “ offered himself up and was executed as a witch 
in Edinburgh.” Thomas Weir, who was a hypocritical 
Puritan,.a leader “‘ among the Presbyterian strict sect,’ and 
regarded as a Saint throughout Edinburgh, had all the while 
secretly led a life of hideous debauchery and was stained 
with the most odious and unnatural crimes. In 1670, which 
was the seventieth year of his age, he appears to have been 
stricken with terrible fits of remorse and despair; the pangs 
of his guilty conscience drove him to the verge of madness 
and his agony could only be eased by a full, ample, and 
public confession of his misdeeds. For a few months his 
party, in order to avoid the scandal and disgrace, contrived 


THE WITCH: HERETIC AND ANARCHIST 385 


6 


to stifle the matter, but a minister ‘‘ whom they esteemed 
more forward than wise’ revealed the secret to the Lord 
Provost of the city, and an inquiry was instituted. The 
wretched old man, insistently declaring that ‘‘ the terrors 
of God which were upon his soul urged him to confess and 
accuse himself,’’ was arrested, together with his crazy sister 
Jean, who was implicated in his abominations. ‘‘ All the 
while he was in prison he lay under violent apprehension 
of the heavy wrath of God, which put him into that which 
is properly called despair,’’ and to various ministers who 
visited him he declared, ‘‘ I know my sentence of damnation 
is already sealed in Heaven . . . for I find nothing within 
me but blackness, darkness, Brimstone, and burning to the 
bottom of Hell.”®? The whole account gives a complete and 
perfectly comprehensible psychological study. So sudden 
a revulsion of feeling, the loathing of foul acts accompanied 
by the sheer inability to repent of them, is quite under- 
standable in a septuagenarian, worn out in body by years 
of excess and enfeebled in mind owing to the heavy strain 
of hourly acting an artificial and difficult réle. The intense 
emotionalism of the degenerate has not infrequently been 
observed eventually to give way to a state of frenzied 
anguish, for which the alienist Magnan coined the name 
** Anxiomania,” a species of mental derangement that soon 
drives the patient to hysterical confession and boundless 
despair. ‘I am convinced,” says one writer with regard 
to Major Weir, ‘‘ of the prisoner having been delirious at the 
time of his trial.’’”° His sister frantically accused her brother 
of Witchcraft, but it is remarkable that in his case this 
charge was not taken up and examined. I do not say that 
Weir was not supposed to be a warlock ; as a matter of fact 
he was notoriously reputed such, and strange stories were 
told of his magic staff and other enchantments, but Witch- 
craft was not the main accusation brought against him in 
the official courts. He was found guilty of adultery, forni- 
cation, incest, and bestiality, and on these several counts 
sentenced to be strangled at a stake betwixt Edinburgh and 
Leith, on Monday, 11 April, 1670, and his body to be burned 
to ashes. Jean Weir was condemned for incest and Witch- 
craft and hanged on 12 April in the Grassmarket at Edin- 
burgh. To the last this miserable lunatic placed “a great 


36 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


deal of confidence in her constant adherence to the Covenant, 
which she called the cause and interest of Christ.” 

It will be seen that Miss Murray’s citation is incorrect ang 

therefore impertinent. Major Weir was not executed ‘ 
a witch.”? Moreover, both he and Gilles de Rais were ene 
strangled, and such examples must entirely fail to account 
‘for the fact that the bodies of witches, male or female, 
were always burnt and the ashes scattered,” especially since 
in the latter case, as we have noticed, the body was honour- 
ably buried in the church of the Whitefriars. In fine, to 
endeavour to connect, however ingeniously, the fate of 
S. Joan of Arc, the execution of Gilles de Rais and Major 
Weir, with the folklorists’ theory of ‘‘ the sacrifice of the 
incarnate deity ”’ is merest fantasy. 

The gist of the whole matter lies elsewhere. Death at 
the stake was the punishment reserved for heretics. As we 
have already noticed, Diocletian ruthlessly burned the 
Manichees : ‘‘ We order then that the professors and teachers 
be punished with the utmost penalties, which is to say they 
are to be burned with fire together with all their execrable 
books and writings.”7? The Visigoth code condemned pagans 
or heretics who had committed sacrilege to the flames, and 
together with them it grouped all Manichees: “‘ It is known 
that many Proconsuls have thrown blasphemers to the beasts, 
ray, have even burned some alive.’’’? The Visigoth code 
of Rekeswinth (652-672) punishes Judaizers with death, *“ aut 
lapide puniatur, aut igne cremetur.’”’ (Let them be stoned 
or burned with fire.) But it was actually in the eleventh 
century that the civil power first generally ordained the 
penalty of the stake for the heretics, who were, it must always 
be remembered, mad anarchists endeavouring to destroy 
all social order, authority, and decency. ‘“‘In Italy even 
many adherents of this pestilential belief were found, and 
these wretches were slain with the sword or burned at the 
stake,’’’4 writes Adhémar de Chabannes, a monk of Angou- 
léme, about the middle of the eleventh century. In a letter 
of Wazon, Bishop of Liege, there is an allusion to similar 
punishments which were being inflicted in Flanders. 

A striking example of the heretical anarchists who troubled 
Kurope about the beginning of the twelfth century may be 
seen in Tanchelin?® and his followers. This fanatic, who 


THE WITCH: HERETIC AND ANARCHIST 37 


was originally a native of Zealand, journeyed throughout 
Flanders preaching his monstrous doctrines everywhere he 
could find listeners and especially concentrating upon the 
city of Antwerp. In 1108 and 1109 he appeared at Arras 
and Cambrai, persuading many evil and ignorant persons to 
accept his abominable tenets. The tares were thickly sown, 
and it is terribly significant that some three centuries later, 
about 1469, there was a fearful epidemic of sorcery throughout 
the whole district of the Artois, in reference to which the 
anonymous author—probably an Inquisitor—of a contem- 
porary work entitled Erreurs des Gazariens ou de ceux que 
Von prouve chevaucher sur un balai ou un baton expressly 
identified such heretics as the Gazariens, who are Cathari, 
and the Vaudois (Poor Lombards) with warlocks and sorcerers. 
In 1112 Tanchelin, who had actually visited Rome itself, was 
upon his return arrested and thrown into prison at Cologne, 
whence, however, he managed to escape, and accompanied 
by an apostate priest Everwacher and a Jew Manasses, who 
had formerly been a blacksmith, at the head of a formidable 
band of three thousand ruffians, outlaws, cast gamesters, 
brigands, murderers, beggars and thieves, the parbreak of 
every slum and stew, he terrorized the whole countryside, 
the people being afraid, the bishops and secular princes 
seemingly unable to resist him. 

The teaching of Tanchelin was, as might be expected, 
largely incoherent and illogical, the ravings of a frantic brain, 
but none the less dangerous and wholly abominable. The 
Church was, of course, directly attacked and blasphemed. 
With abuse and foul language, extraordinarily like the 
language of the so-called Reformers in the sixteenth century, 
the hierarchy and all ecclesiastical order were repudiated 
and contemned, priests and religious in particular were to 
be persecuted and exterminated since the priesthood was a 
fiction and asnare; the Sacrifice of Holy Mass was a mockery, 
all Sacraments were void and empty forms, useless for 
salvation?®; the churches themselves were to be accounted 
as brothels and markets of shame. ‘‘ This very spawn of 
Satan and black angel of woe declared that the churches, 
dedicated to God’s worship, were bawdy-houses. That, at 
Holy Mass there was no Sacrifice at the hands of the priest ; 
the Service of the Altar was filth, not a Sacrament.’’”’ 


38 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


Tanchelin declared himself to be the Messiah, God, the Son 
of God, the Perfect Man, the sum of all the divine emanations 
in one system, upon whom had descended and in whom abode 
the pleroma of the Holy Spirit. ‘‘ This miserable wretch 
advanced from evil to evil and at length proceeded to such 
an extremity of unheard-of wickedness that he gave himself 
out to be God, asserting that if Christ be God because the 
Holy Ghost dwelt in Him, he himself was not less than and 
of the same nature as God, seeing that he enjoyed the 
plenitude of the Holy Ghost.”?® Here the Gnostic character 
of his teaching is very apparent. He even caused a temple 
to be erected in his honour where he was worshipped with 
sacrifice and hymns. His followers, indeed, regarded this 
lunatic wretch with such an excess of veneration that the 
dirty water from his bath was actually collected in phials 
and solemnly distributed among them, whereof they partook 
as of a sacrament. 

It must be borne in mind that Tanchelin’s programme did 
not solely comprise a negation of Christian dogma; this we 
find in most of the innovators at the time of the so-called 
Reformation, but his ultimate aim was to effect a social 
revolution, to overturn the existing order of things and 
produce communistic chaos with himself as overlord and 
dictator. The way for anarchy could only have been paved 
by the destruction of the Church, the supreme representa- 
tive of authority and order throughout the world, and it was 
accordingly against the Church that this superman launched 
his fiercest diatribes. To further his ends he encouraged, 
nay, commanded, the open practice of the foulest vices ; 
incest, adultery, fornication were declared to be works of 
spiritual efficacy; unmentionable abominations flaunted 
themselves in the face of day; virtue became an offence; 
men were driven to vice and crime, and anon they gradually 
sank in a stupor of infamy and sheer boneless degradation. 

The unfortunate town of Antwerp came directly under 
Tanchelin’s influence. Here he reigned as king, surrounded 
by vile and obsequious satellites who ground the miserable 
citizens to the dust and filled each street and corner with 
orgies of lust and blood. There is a strange and striking 
parallel between the details of his foul career and the Russian 
tyranny to-day. Little wonder that in 1116 a priest, 


THE WITCH: HERETIC AND ANARCHIST 39 


maddened by the outrages and profanities of this hellish crew, 
scattered the heretic’s brains upon the deck of his royal barge 
as one afternoon he was sailing in pompous state down the 
river Schelde: ‘‘ After a life of infamy, bloodshed, and heresy, 
whilst he was sailing on the river he was struck on the head 
by a certain priest and falling down died there.”?® All un- 
fortunately, however, the pernicious errors of Tanchelin did 
not expire with their author. Antwerp remained plunged in 
dissipation and riot, and although strenuous efforts were 
made to restore decency and order, at first these seemed to 
be entirely nugatory and fruitless. Burchard, the Bishop 
of Cambrai, at once sent twelve of his most revered and 
learned canons under the conduct of Hidolphe, a priest of 
acknowledged sagacity and experience, to endeavour to 
reform the town by word and example, but it seemed as 
though their efforts were doomed to failure and ill-success. 
At length,- almost in despair, the good prelate begged 
S. Norbert,8® who some three years before had founded his 
Order at Prémontré, to essay the thankless and wellnigh 
impossible task. Without demur or hesitation the Saint 
cheerfully undertook so difficult a mission and accompanied 
only by S. Evermonde, *! and Blessed Waltman, together with 
a few more of his most fervent followers he arrived at Antwerp 
without delay to begin his work there towards the end of 
1128. Success at once crowned his efforts ; in an incredibly 
short space of time the people confessed their errors, abuses 
were reformed, the leprous town cleansed of its foulness, 
public safety, order, and decorum once again established, 
and, what is extremely striking to notice, the old chroniclers 
draw attention to the fact that a large number both of men 
and women in deepest penitence brought to S. Norbert 
quantities of consecrated Hosts which they had purloined 
from the tabernacles and kept concealed in boxes and other 
hiding-places to utilize for charms and evil invocations, to 
profane in devil-worship and at the Sabbat. So marvellous 
was the change from darkness to light that year by year the 
Premonstratensian Order upon the Saturday® after the 
Octave of Corpus Christi solemnly observes a fitting memorial 
thereof in the glad Feast of the Triumph of Holy Father 
Norbert. 

In this incident of the stolen Hosts the connexion between 


40 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


Gnostic heresy and Satanism is clearly seen. It was in such 
soil as the antinomianism of Tanchelin that the poisoned 
weeds of sorcery would thrive apace. The authorities recog- 
nized that drastic measures must be employed, and at Bonn 
a company of impure fanatics who attempted to disseminate 
his ideas were incontinently sent to the stake. 

The other arguments brought forward by Miss Murray to 
support her thesis of the continuity of a primitive religion 
are mainly “the persistence of the number thirteen in the 
Covens, the narrow geographical range of the domestic 
familiar, the avoidance of certain forms in the animal trans- 
formations, the limited number of personal names among the 
women-witches, and the survival of the names of some of 
the early gods.’”’®8 Even if these details could be proved up 
to the hilt and shown to be pertinent the evidence were not_ 
convincing ; it would at best point to some odd survivals, 
such as are familiar in an hundred ways to every student of 
hagiography, history, myths and legends, old religions, 
geography, iconography, topography, etymology, anthro- 
pology, and antiquarian lore in a myriad branches. If 
we examine the matter broadly we shall find that these 
circumstances are for the most part local, not general, that 
in many instances they cannot be clearly substantiated, for 
the evidence is conflicting and obscure. 

‘* The ‘ fixed number ’ among the witches of Great Britain,” 
Miss Murray notes, ‘‘ seems to have been thirteen,’’84 and 
certainly in many cases amongst the English trials the coven 
appears to have consisted of thirteen members, although it 
may be borne in mind that very probably there were often 
other associates who were not traced and involved and so 
escaped justice. Yet Miss Murray does not explain why the 
number thirteen should form any link with an earlier ritual 
and worship. On the other hand, the demonologists are never 
tired of insisting that Satan is the ape of God in all things, 
and that the worshippers of evil delight to parody every 
divine ordinance and institution. The explanation is simple. 
The number thirteen was adopted by the witches for their 
covens in mockery of Our Lord and His Apostles. 

‘’ The narrow geographical range of the domestic familiar ” 
is not at all apparent, and {t were futile to base any pre- 
sumption upon so slender a line of argument. ‘‘ The avoidance 


THE WITCH: HERETIC AND ANARCHIST 41 


of certain forms in the animal transformation”’ is upon a 
general view of Witchcraft found to be nothing other than 
the non-occurrence of the lamb and the dove, and these two 
were abhorred by sorcerers, seeing that Christ is the Lamb 
of God, Agnus Dei, whilst the Dove is the manifestation of 
the Holy Ghost.85 There is one instance, the trail of Agnes 
Wobster at Aberdeen in 1597, when the Devil is said to have 
appeared to the witch “‘ in the liknes of a lamb, quhom thou 
eallis thy God, and bletit on the, and thaireftir spak to 
the.”8& But this rare exception must be understood to be a 
black and deformed lamb, not the snow-white Agnus Dei. 
In pictures of the Doctors of the Church, particularly perhaps 
S. Gregory the Great and S. Alphonsus de Liguori, the Dove 
is seen breathing divine inspiration into the ear of the Saint 
who writes the heavenly message, thus directly given by 
God the Holy Ghost. So in a Franco-German miniature of 
the eleventh century in the Hortus Deliciarum we see a black 
hideous bird breathing into the ear of a magician thoughts 
evil and dark. This cloudy and sombre spirit, violent in its 
attitude and lean in body stretches its meagre throat towards 
the ear of the wicked man, who, seated at a desk, transcribes 
upon a parchment the malevolent and baleful charms which 
it dictates. It is in fact the Devil.®’ 

With reference to the argument based upon “‘ the limited 
number of personal names among the women-witches ”’ this 
simply resolves itself into the fact that in the sixteenth and 
seventeenth centuries there were in general use (particularly 
amongst the peasantry) far fewer personal names than have 
been employed of more recent years. To assert “that the 
name Christian clearly indicates the presence of another 
religion ’?®* is simple nonsense. It may be noticed, too, how 
many of the names which Miss Murray has catalogued in 
such conscientious and alas! impertinent detail are those 
of well-known Saints whose cult was universal throughout 
‘Europe: Agnes, Alice, Anne, Barbara, Christopher, Collette, 
Elizabeth, Giles, Isabel, James, John, Katherine, Lawrence, 
Margaret, Mary, Michael, Patrick, Thomas, Ursula—and the 
list might be almost indefinitely prolonged. 

‘The survival of the names of some of the early gods ”’ 
is also asserted. In connexion with Witchcraft, however, very 
few examples of this can be traced even by the most careful 


42 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


research. An old charm or two, a nonsense rhyme, may now 
and again repeat some forgotten meaningless word or refrain. 
Thus in a spell used by the witches of the Basses-Pyrénées, 
cited by De Lancre (1609), we find mention of the old Basque 
deity Janicot: ‘“‘In nomine patrica, Aragueaco Petrica, 
Gastellaco Ianicot, Equide ipordian pot.” Bodin gives a 
dance-jingle, “‘ Har, har, diable, diable, saute icy, saute 1a, 
iolie icy, ioiie la,’ to which the chorus was “‘ sabath sabath.”’ 
Miss Murray tells us that the Guernsey version ‘“‘ which is 
currently reported to be used at the present day,” runs: 
** Har, har, Hon, Hon, danse ici.’’8® Hon was an old Breton 
god, and there are still remote districts whose local names 
recall and may be compounded with that of this ancient deity. 
It is significant that in one case we have a Basque deity, in 
the other a Breton; for Basque and Breton are nearly, if 
obscurely, correlated. Such traces are interesting enough, 
but by no means unique, hardly singular indeed, since they 
can be so widely paralleled, and it were idle to base any 
elaborate argument concerning the continuity of a fully 
organized cult upon slight and unrelated survivals in dialect 
place-names and the mere doggerel lilt of a peasant-song. 
There is in particular one statement advanced by Miss 
Murray which goes far to show how in complete unconscious- 
ness she is fitting her material to her theory. She writes: 
‘There is at present nothing to show how much of the 
Witches’ Mass (in which the bread, the wine, and the candles 
were black) derived from the Christian ritual and how much 
belonged to the Dianic cult [the name given to this hypo- 
thetical but universal ancient religion]; it is, however, 
possible that the witches’ service was the earlier form and 
influenced the Christian.’’°® This last sentence is in truth 
an amazing assertion. A more flagrant case of hysteron- 
proteron is hardly imaginable. So self-evident is the absurdity 
that it refutes itself, and one can only suppose that the words 
were allowed to remain owing to their having been over- 
looked in the revision of a long and difficult study, a venial 
negligence. Every prayer and every gesture of Holy Mass, 
since the first Mass was celebrated upon the first Maundy 
Thursday, has been studied in minutest detail by generations 
of liturgiologists and ceremonialists, whose library is almost 
infinite in its vastness and extent from the humblest 


THE WITCH: HERETIC AND ANARCHIST 43 


pamphlets to the hugest folios. We can trace each inspired 
development, when such an early phrase was added, when 
such a hallowed sign was first made at such words in such 
an orison. The witches’ service is a hideous burlesque of 
Holy Mass, and, briefly, what Miss Murray suggests is that 
the parody may have existed before the thing parodied. 
It is true that some topsy-turvy writers have actually pro- 
claimed that magic preceded religion, but this view is generally 
discredited by the authorities of allschools. Sir James Frazer, 
Sir A. L. Lyall, and Mr.-F. B. Jevons, for example, recognize 
‘‘» fundamental distinction and even opposition of principle 
between magic and religion.”’*} 

In fine, upon a candid examination of this theory of the 
continuity of some primitive religion, which existed as an 
underlying organization manifested in Witchcraft and sorcery, 
a serious rival feared and hated by the Church, we find that 
_ nothing of the sort ever survived, that there was no connexion 
between sorcery and an imaginary “‘ Dianic cult.” To write 
that “in the fifteenth century open war was declared against 
the last remains of heathenism in the famous Bull of 
Innocent VIII ’’°? is to ignore history. As has been empha- 
sized above, the Bull Swmmis desiderantes affectibus of 1484 
was only one of a long series of Papal ordinances directed 
against an intolerable evil not heathenism indeed, but heresy. 
For heresy, sorcery, and anarchy were almost interchangeable 
words, and the first Bull launched directly against the black 
art was that of Alexander IV, 1258, two hundred and twenty- 
six years before. 

That here and there lingered various old harmless customs 
and festivities which had come down from pre-Christian times 
and which the Church had allowed, nay, had even sanctified 
by directing them to their right source, the Maypole dances, 
for example, and the Midsummer fires which now honour 
S. John Baptist, is a matter of common knowledge. But this 
is no continuance of a pagan cult. 

From the first centuries of the Christian era, throughout 
the Middle Ages, and continuously to the present day there 
has invariably been an open avowal of intentional evil-doing 
on the part of the devotees of the witch-cult, and the more 
mischief they did the more they pleased their lord and master. 
Their revels were loathly, lecherous, and abominable, a Sabbat 


4A, THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


where every circumstance of horror and iniquity found ex- 
pression. This in itself is an argument against Miss 
Murray’s theory, as none of the earlier religions existed for 
the express purpose of perpetrating evil for evil’s sake. We 
have but to read the eloquent and exquisite description of 
the Eleusinian Mysteries by that accomplished Greek scholar 
Father Cyril Martindale, S.J.,9% to catch no mean nor 
mistaken glimpse of the ineffable yearning for beauty, for 
purity, for holiness, which filled the hearts of the worshippers 
of the goddess Persephoneia, whose stately and impressive 
ritual prescribing fasts, bathing in the waters of the sea, 
self-discipline, self-denial, self-restraint, culminated in the 
Hall of Initiation, hallowed by the Earth-Mother, Demeter, 
where the symbolic drama of life, death, and resurrection was 
shown by the Hierophant to those who had wrestled, and 
endured, and were adjudged worthy. How fair a shadow 
was this, albeit always and ever a shadow, of the imperishable 
and eternal realities to come! How different these Mysteries 
from the foul orgies of witches, the Sabbat, the black mass, 
the adoration of hell. 

In truth it was not against heathenism that Innocent VIII 
sounded the note of war, but against heresy. There was a 
clandestine organization hated by the Church, and this was 
not sorcery nor any cult of witches renewing and keeping 
green some ancient rites and pagan creed, but a witch-cult 
that identified itself with and was continually manifested 
in closest connexion with Gnosticism in its most degraded 
and vilest shapes. 

There is a curious little piece of symbolism, as it may be, 
which has passed into the patois of the Pyrenees. Wizards 
are commonly known as poudoués and witches poudouéros, 
both words being derived from putere, which signifies to have 
an evil smell. The demonologists report, and it was com- 
monly believed, that sorcerers could often be detected by 
their foul and fetid odour. Hagiographers tell that S. Philip 
Neri could distinguish heretics by their smell, and often he 
was obliged to turn away his head when meeting them in 
the street. The same is recorded of many other Saints, and 
this tradition is interesting as it serves to show the close 
connexion there was held to be between magic and heresy.%4 
Saint Pachomius, the cenobite, could distinguish heretics by 


THE WITCH: HERETIC AND ANARCHIST 45 


their insupportable stench; the abbot Eugendis could tell 
the virtues and vices of those whom he met by the perfume 
or the stink. Saint Hilarion, as S. Jerome relates, could even 
distinguish a man’s sins by the smell of a warm garment or 
cloak. Blessed Dominica of Paradise, passing a soldier in the 
street, knew by the foul smell that he had abandoned the 
faith, to which, however, her fervid exhortations and prayers 
eventually restored him. Saint Bridget of Sweden was 
wellnigh suffocated by the fetor of a notorious sinner who 
addressed her. Saint Catherine of Siena experienced the 
same sensations ; whilst Saint Lutgarde, a Cistercian nun, on 
meeting a vicious reprobate perceived a decaying smell of 
leprosy and disease. 

On the other hand, the Saints themselves have diffused 
sweetest fragrances, and actually ‘‘ the odour of sanctity ”’ 
is more than a mere phrase. One day in 1566, when he had 
entered the church at Somascha, a secluded hamlet between 
Milan and Bergamo, S. Charles Borromeo exclaimed: “I 
know by the heavenly fragrance in this sanctuary that a 
great Servant of God lies buried here !”’? The church, in fact, 
contained the body of S. Jerome Emiliani, who died in 1587. 
S. Herman Joseph could be traced through the corridors of 
Steinfeld by the rare perfumes he scattered as he walked. 
The same was the case with that marvellous mystic S. Joseph 
of Cupertino. S. Thomas Aquinas smelt of male frankincense. 
I myself have known a priest of fervent faith who at times 
diffused the odour of incense. Maria-Vittoria of Genoa, Ida 
of Louvain, S. Colette, S. Humiliana, were fragrant as sweet 
flowers. S. Francis of Paul and Venturini of Bergamo 
scattered heavenly aromas when they offered the Holy 
Sacrifice. The pus of S. John of the Cross gave forth a strong 
scent of lilies. 

Miss Murray has worked out her thesis with no inconsider- 
able ingenuity, but when details are considered, historically 
examined, and set in their due proportions, it must be 
concluded that the theory of the continuity of an ancient 
religion is baseless. Her book is called A Study in Anthro- 
pology, and here we can, I think, at once put our finger upon 
the fundamental mistake. Anthropology alone offers no 
explanation of Witchcraft. Only the trained theologian can 
adequately treat the subject. An amount of interesting 


46 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


material has been collected, but the key to the dark mystery 
could not be found. 

Yet, as our investigations have shown, it was not so far 
to seek. In the succinct phrase of that profound and prolific 
scholar Thomas Stapleton®®: Crescit cum magia heresis, 
cum heeresi magia.’’ (The weed heresy grows alongside the 
weed witchcraft, the weed witchcraft alongside the weed 
heresy.) 


NOTES TO CHAPTER I. 


1 Paris. Jacques du Puys. 4to. 1580. The preface, addressed to De Thou, 
is signed: ‘‘ De Laon, ce xx iour de Decembre, M.D.LXXIX.’’ There were 
nine editions before 1604. The most complete is Paris, 4to. 1587. In addition 
to the text it contains ten extra pages only found here giving the trial of a 
sorcerer, Abel de la Rue, executed in 1582. 

2 The first Papal bull dealing with sorcery was issued by Alexander IV, 
13 December, 1258. The last Papal Constitution concerned with this crime 
is that of Urban VIII, Inscrutabilis iudiciorum Dei altitudo, 1 April, 1631. 
The last regular English trial seems to have been that of an old woman and her 
son, acquitted at Leicester in 1717. In 1722 the last execution of a Scottish 
witch took place at Loth; both English and Scottish statutes were repealed 
in 1735. The Irish Statute was not repealed until 1821. At Kempten in 
Bavaria, a mad heretic, a woman, was executed for sorcery in 1775. In the 
Swiss canton of Glaris, a wench named Anna Goeldi, was hanged as a witch, 
17 June, 1782. Two hags were burned in Poland on the same charge as late 
as 1793. 

3 Roland Brévannes. Les Messes Noires, Iiet tableau, scéne vit. 

4 I have actually heard it categorically laid down by a speaker in a 
Shakespearean debate, a litterateur of professed culture, that the Elizabethans 
could not, of course, really have believed in witchcraft. 

5 In the Exhibition of this artist’s work at the Leicester Galleries, London, 
in March, 1925. 

6... quelle, & sa mére montoient sur vne ramasse, & que sortans le 
contremont de la cheminée elles alloient par l’air en ceste fagon au Sabbat. 
Boguet, Discours, p. 104. 

7 Glanvill, Part IT. p. 194. 

§ Julius Wellhausen. Reste arabischen Heidenthums, p. 159. Berlin, 1897. 

® Apud Miss Murray’s The Witch-Cult. (1921). Appendix V. pp. 279-80. 

10 Boguet, Discours. XVI. 4. 

11 Benjamin Thorpe, Monumenta Ecclesiastica, II. p. 34. London, 1840. 
The Liber Poenitentialis was first published complete by Wasserschleben 
in 1851; a convenient edition is Migne, P.L. XCIX. 

12 Calendar of State Papers. Domestic, 1584. 

13 Sir Walter Scott, Demonology and Witchcraft, Letter V, gives the narrative 
of this case, but in the light of later research his version must be slightly 
corrected. 

14 Pitcairn. I. pt. ii. p. 162. 

15 Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, New Series, vol. X. 
Edinburgh. 

16 Sir James Melville, Memoirs. Bannatyne Club, Edinburgh. pp. 395-6. 

17 London. ‘for William Wright.” N.D. [1591]. The woodcut is on the 
title-page verso, and signature [c.ij.] verso. The pages are not numbered. 

18 Flying Ointments. Apud Miss Murray’s Witch-Cult in Western Europe, 
p. 279. It may be noted that the scandals of the Black Mass under Louis XIV 
were closely concerned with wholesale accusations of poisoning. La Voisin 
was a notorious vendor of toxic philtres. The possibility of poisoning the 
King, the Dauphin, Colbert and others was frequently debated. 


THE WITCH: HERETIC AND ANARCHIST 47 


19 Dio Cassius. XLIX. 43. p. 756. ed. Sturz. 

20 Idem. LII. 36. p. 149. 

21 Suetonius. Augustus. 31. 

*2 Tacitus. Annales. II.32. More prisco. ‘‘ Uteum infelici arbori alligatum 
uirgis cedi, et postremo securi percuti iuberent.’’ Muret. 

ne EAGLE 

24 Suetonius. Vitellius. 14. 

25 Dio Cassius. LXVI. 10. 

26 La Magie et la Sorcellerie. Paris. (1912.) I. p. 33. 

27 Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions, It. p. 117. 

28 The dates are as inaccurate as the statements. Giovanni Battista Cibd 
was elected Pope 29 August, 1484; and the Bull was issued in the December 
of that year, not in 1488. 

29 Rise and Influence of Rationalism in Europe, ce. 1. 

30 Dictionary of Universal Biography. VIII. (1890). 

31 A more detailed treatment will be found in the present writer’s The 
Geography of Witchcraft, where the Bull is given in extenso. 

32 Epist., cn. 1. 

33 Hom., XLVI. c. 1. 

34 Sententianum, III. iv. nn. 4-6. 

35 Theodosius II. Nouwelle, tit. III. a.p. 438. 

36 Uanissimus [Priscillianus] et plus iusto inflatior profanarum rerum 
scientia : quin et magicas artes ab adolescentia cum exercuisse creditum est. 
Sulpicius Severus. II. 47. 

37 H. C. Lea in his History of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages, (1888) 
1. 215, asserts that Leo I justified the act, and that successive edicts against 
heresy were_.due to ecclesiastical influence. This is the exact opposite of 
historical truth, and the writer has not hesitated to transfer words of the 
Emperor to the Pope. 

38 In asermon published in 1896 by Dom Morin Revue benédictine, c. xiii. 
p. 205. 

89 Hpistola Elipandi ad Alcuinum, Migne. Pat. Lat. CXCVI. p. 872. 
Alcuin. Opera Omnia. Migne Pat. Lat. C-CI., especially Liber Albini contra 
heresim Felicis ; Inbri VII aduersus Felicem ; Aduersus Elipandum Libri lV. 
Florez, Espana sagrada. V. p. 562. Menendez y Pelayo, Historia de los 
heterodoxos espanoles, Madrid, 1880, I. p. 274. 

40 The martyrdom of S. Peter is a well-known subject in art. Titian’s 
masterpiece in the Dominican church of 8S. Giovannie Paolo at Venice was 
destroyed by a fire on 16 August, 1867. But there are exquisite paintings 
of the scene by Lorenzo Lotto and Bellini. §S. Peter, whose shrine is in 
San Eustorgio, Milan, was canonized 25 March, 1253, by Innocent IV. 
Major Feast, 29 April. 

41 Muratori. Antiquitates ttalicee medii wut, Milan, 1738-42. 

42 Gabriel Rossetti, Disquisitions, vol. I. p. 27. 

43 Gervasius Dorobernensis, Chronicon. 

44 Vita S. Romane. n. 10; Acta SS. die, 3 Oct. p. 188. 8. Gregori VII. 
Lib. I. Epistola 75, ad Philippum. 

45 Labbe. Sacrosancta concilia. 18 vols. folio. 1671. Vol. X. col. 84. 

46 Quarum rerum rex uester, qui non rex sed tyrannus dicendus est, 
suadente diabolo, caput et causa est, qui omnem aetatem suam flagitiis 
et facinoribus polluit. Idem, vol. X. col. 72. 

47 Sane ... prouinciali ordinis predicatorum in eodem regno dedimus 
in mandatis, ut aliquibus fratribus suis aptis ad hoc, inquisitionem contra 
illos committeret in regno prefato ... fraternitati tue ... mandamus 
quatenus . . . peralios quiad hoc idonei uidebuntur, festines . . . procedere 
in inquisitionis negotio et ad dominicum certamen accingi. Ripollet Brémond, 
Bullarium ordinis S. Dominici, I. p. 80. (8 vols. Rome. 1737, sqq.). 

48 Fratres ... qui ad predicandum crucem uel inquirendum contra 
prauitatem hereticam ... sunt deputati. Wadding. Annales Minorum. 
ed. secunda, 24 vols. Rome, 1732, sgq. III. 144. 

49 Gnostic Heresies. 

50 Jules Bois. Le Satanisme et la Magie, c. 6. 


48 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


51 Tt is true that S. Augustine does not bring a charge of depravity against 
the Manichxans, but they veiled their vices with the greatest caution, and 
S. Augustine was simply a catechumen, one of the Auditors, who would have 
known nothing of these esoteric abominations. 

52 Extra ciuitatis educti muros in quodam tuguriolo copioso igne accenso 
... cremati sunt. Gesta synodi Aurelianensis. Arnould. L’ Inquisition. 
(Paris, 1869). VI. p. 46. 

53 Sed antequam ad conflictum ueniamus, de cibo illo, qui ceelestis ab illis 
dicebatur, quali arte conficiebatur, nescientibus demonstrare curabo. Con- 
gregabantur si quidem certis noctibus in domo denominata, singuli lucernas 
tenentes in  manibus, ad instar letanie demonum nomina declamabant, 
donec subito Demonem in similitudine cuiuslibet bestiole inter eos uiderent 
descendere. Qui statim, ut uisibilis ille uidebatur uisio, omnibus extinctis 
luminaribus, quamprimum quisque poterat, mulierem, que ad manum sibi 
ueniebat, ad abutendum arripiebat, sine peccati respectu, et utrum mater, 
aut soror, aut monacha haberetur, pro sanctitate et religione eius concubitus 
ab-illis estimabatur ; ex quo spurcissimo concubitu infans generatus, octaua 
die in medio eorum copioso igne accenso probabatur per ignem more anti- 
quorum Paganorum ; et sicin ignecremabatur. Cuius cinis tanta ueneratione 
colligebatur atque custodiebatur, ut Christiana religiositas Corpus Christi 
custodire solet, egris dandum de hoc seculo exituris ad uiaticum. Inerat 
enim tanta uis diabolice fraudis in ipso cinere ut quicumque de prefata 
heeresi imbutus fuisset, et de eodem cinere quamuis sumendo parum preli- 
bauisset, uix unquam postea de eadem heresi gressum mentis ad uiam ueritatis 
dirigere ualeret. De qua re parum dixisse sufficiat, ut Christicole caueant 
se ab hoc nefario opere, non ut studeant sectando imitari. Schmidt. Histoire 
et doctrine des Cathares ou Albigeois. Paris. 1849. I.p. 31. 

54 G. R. Kinloch. Reliquic Antique Scotice. Edinburgh, 1848. 

55 Adhémar de Chabannes. (A monk of Angouléme.) Chronicon, Recueil 
des historicus, vol. X. p. 163. 

56 Fabré Palaprat. Recherches Historiques sur les Templiers, Paris. 1835. 

57 Cambridge University Press, 1925. 

°8 The Philosopher, July—August, 1924. 

59 The Philosopher, January-March, 1925. The Albigenses, pp. 20-25. 
The whole article, which is written with extuaordinary restraint, should be 
read. 

60 He is the author of Hléments d@’ Astrologie ; Un disciple de Cl. de Saint- 
Martin, Dutoit-Membrini ; Premiers Eléments d’Occultisme ; La petite Eglise 
anticoncordataire, son histoire, son état actuel ; J. K. Huysmans et le Satanisme ; 
Huysmans, Occultiste et Magicien. 

61 In Uerrem. IV. 43. 

62 H. Th. Pyl, Die griechischen Rundbauten, 1861, pp. 67, sqq. 

63 Plutarch, Theseus 36; Cimon 8. 

64 Pausanias is the chief authority on this point. See Rohde Psyche, I. 
p. 161. 

65 Clarendon Press, 1921. 

66 The Witch-Cult in Western Europe, p. 16. It is true that the Brethren 
of the Free Spirit, anarchists, who vaunted the Adamite heresy, in the 
Thirteenth century, went to the stake with peans of joy. But they were 
probably drugged. J. L. Mosheim, Hcclesiastical History. London. 1819. 
III. p. 278. sqq. The Adamites were a licentious sect who called their church 
Paradise and worshipped in a state of stark nudity. They were Gnostics 
and claimed complete emancipation from the moral law. They lived in 
shameful communism. Bohemian Adamites existed as late as 1849. In 
Russia the teleschi, a branch of the sect known as the ‘‘ Divine Men,”’ per- 
formed their religious rites in a state of nature, following the example, as 
they asserted, of Adam and Eve in Paradise. These assemblies were wont 
to end in promiscuous debauchery. 

67 Idem. p. 161. 

68 Witch-Cult in Western Europe, p. 161. 

69 Additional Notices of Major Weir and his Sister; Sinclar’s Satan’ 
Invisible World. (Reprint. 1875). 


THE WITCH: HERETIC AND ANARCHIST 49 


70 Criminal Trials, 1536-1784 ; Hugo Arnot, 4to, 1785. 

71 Ravillac Rediwius, Dr. George Hickes, 4to, 1678. 

72 Tubemus namque, auctores quidem et principes, una cum abominandis 
scripturis eorum seueriori pcene subiici, ita ut flammeis ignibus exurantur. 
Baronius, 287, 4. 

73 Scio multos [Proconsufesl et ad bestias damnasse sacrilegos, nonnullos 
eee uiuos exussisse. Lex Romana Visigothorum nouella, XLVIII. tit. xiii. 
c. 6—7. 

74 Plures etiam per Italiam tunc huius pestiferi dogmatis sunt reperti, 
qui aut gladiis, aut incendiis perierunt. 

75 Tanchelinus, Tandemus, Tanchelmus. The history of this important 
revolutionary movement has been carefully studied. The following authorise 
tative books are a few from many of great value and learning. Corpus 
documentorum Inquisitionis heretice prauitatis neerlandice, ed. Dr. Paul 
Frédéricq, vol. I, p. 15 et sqgq. Ghent. 1889; Tanchelijn by Janssen in 
the Annales de V’académie Royale @archéologie de Belgique, vol. XXIII, p. 448 
et sqq. 1867; Foppens, Historia Episcopatus Antuerpiensis, p. 8 and p. 146, 
Brussells, 1717; Dierxsens, Antuerpia Christo nascens et crescens, vol. I, p. 88, 
Antwerp, 1773; Poncelet, Saint Norbert et Tanchelin in the Analecta bollan- 
diniana, vol. XIII, p. 441, 1893; Schools, Saint Norbert et Tanchelin a Anvers 
in the Bibliothéque norbertine, vol. II, p. 97, 1900; De Schapper, Réponse 
a& la question: Faites connattre Vhérésiarque Tanchelin et les erreurs qual 
répandit au commencement du XIII¢ siécle [an error for XIJ¢ siécle] in the 
Collationes Brugenses, vol. XVII, p. 107, 1912. L. Vander Essen, De Katter 
van Tanchelm in de XII¢ eeuw in Ons Geloof, vol. II, p. 354, 1912; Antwerpen 
en de H. Norbertus in the Bode van Onze Lieve Vrouw van het H. Hert van 
Averbode, Nos. 18 and 19, pp. 207-211 and 217-220, 1914. 

76 “That most vile and abandoned scoundrel had become so open and 
utterly depraved an enemy to the Christian faith and all religious observance 
that he denied any respect was due to Bishops and priests; moreover, he 
affirmed that the reception of the most holy Body and Blood of Our Lord 
availed nothing to eternal life and man’s salvation.” ‘‘ Erat quidem ille 
sceleratissimus et christians fidui et totius religionis inimicus in tantum ut 
obsequium episcoporum et sacerdotum nihil esse diceret, et sacrosancti 
corporiset sanguinis Domini J. C. perceptionem ad salutem perpetuam 
prodesse denegeret.” Vita Noberti archiepiscopi Magdeburgensis, Vita A. 
Monument. Germ. Scriptores, vol. XII. p. 690, ed. G. A. Pertz, Hanover, 
Berlin. 

17 “*Tmmo uere ipse angelus Sathane declamabat eccelsias Dei lupinaria 
esse reputanda. Nihil esse, quod sacerdotum officio in mensa dominica 
conficeretur ; pollutiones, non sacramenta nominanda.” Lettre des chanoines 
d’ Utrecht au nom de leur diocese & Frédéric, archevéque de Cologne. Apud 
Frédéricq, vol. I. n. 11. eta: 

78 Talibus nequitize successibus miscro homini tanta sceleris accessit 
audacia, ut etiam se Deum diceret, asserens, quia, si Christus ideo Deus est, 
quia Spiritum Sanctum habuisset, se non inferius nec dissimilius Deum, quia 
plenitudinem Spiritus Sancti accepisset. Idem. 

79 Qui tandem post multos errores et cedes, dum nauigaret, a quodam 
presbytero percussus in cerebro occubuit. Sigiberti continuatio. Apud 
Monument. Germ. Scriptores, vol. VI, p. 449. See also, Johannes Trithemius, 
Annales Hirsaugienses, vol. 1, p. 387, Saint-Gall, 1690; Du Plessis d’Argentré, 
Collectio iudiciorum, vol. I, p. 11 sqq. Paris, 1728; Schmidt, Histoire et 
doctrine des Cathares ou Albigeois, vol. I, p. 49, Paris, 1849. 

80 There is a contemporary Uita Norberti of which two recensions have 
been published: Uita A. by R. Wilmans in the Mon. Germ. Hag., SS., 
vol. XIII, pp. 663-706, Hanover, 1853; Uvia B. by Surius, De probatis 
Sanctorum historiis, vol. III, pp. 517-547, Cologne, 1572. Other authoritative 
works are: J. Van der Sterse, Uita S. Norbertt, Antwerp, 1622; Du Pré, 
La Vic du bienhereux saint Norbert, Paris, 1627; Ch. Hugo, La Vie de 
St. Norbert, Luxembourg, 1704; G. Madelaine, Histoire de St. Norbert, Lille, 
1886; B. Wazasek, Der Hl. Norbert, Vienna, 1914. An excellent brief but 


E 


50 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


scholarly account is The Life of S. Norbert, London, 1886, by my late revered 
friend Abbot Geudens, O.R.P. 

81 Feast, 17 February. 

82 Formerly kept upon the Sunday. 

83 Op. cit., pp. 16, 17. 

84 Op. cit., p. 191. 

85 For a full and detailed statement see Didron’s great work, Iconographie 
chrétienne, Paris, 1843. 

86 Spalding Club Miscellany, I, p. 129. Aberdeen, 1841. 

8? At their black mass the witches of the Basses-Pyrénées (1609) when 
the host was elevated said ‘‘ Corbeau noir, corbeau noir.’’ De Lancre, T'ableau 
de l’ Inconstance des mauvais Anges, Paris, 1613. 

88 Op. ctt., p. 255. 

89 Op. cit., p. 165. It is not at all evident that ‘‘ the word diable is clearly 
Bodin’s own interpellation for the name of the god,” indeed this assumption 
is purely gratuitous to support the argument, and cannot be admitted. 

90 Op. cit., pp. 14, 15. I would not dwell upon the offensiveness of this 
suggestion, since it is, I am sure, unintentional. 

1 Golden Bough, Part I. vol. I. p. xx. Third Edition. 1911. 

82° On. ctt., p- 19. 

3 The Goddess of Ghosts, pp. 137-158. 

94 Cassiodorus, Hist. Eccl., VII, 11. fin. speaks of the fetidissimus fons 
of heresy. 

95 1535-1598. His works were collected in four folio volumes, Paris, 1620, 
prefaced by Henry Holland’s Uita Thome Stapletoni. An original portrait 
is preserved at Douai Abbey, Woolhampton. 


© 


CHAPTER II 
Tue WorsHIP OF THE WITCH 


In order clearly to understand and fully to realize the 
shuddering horror and heart-sick dismay any sort of commerce 
between human beings and evil spirits, which is the very 
core and kernel of Witchcraft, excited throughout the whole 
of Christendom, to appreciate why tome after tome was 
written upon the subject by the most learned pens of Europe, 
why holiest pontiffs and wisest judges, grave philosopher 
and discreet scholar, king and peasant, careless noble and 
earnest divine, all alike were of one mind in the prosecution 
of sorcery ; why in Catholic Spain and in Puritan Scotland, 
in cold Geneva and at genial Rome, unhesitatingly and 
perseveringly man sought to stamp out the plague with the 
most terrible of all penalties, the cautery of fire; in order 
that by the misreading of history we should not superficially 
and foolishly think monk and magistrate, layman and lawyer 
were mere tigers, mad fanatics—for as such have they, too, 
often been presented and traduced,—it will be not wholly 
impertinent briefly to recapitulate the orthodox doctrine of 
the Powers of Darkness, facts nowadays too often forgotten 
or ignored, but which to the acute medieval mind were ever 
fearfully and prominently in view. 

And here, as in so many other beliefs, we shall find a little 
dogma; certain things that can hardly be denied without 
the note of temerity ; and much concerning which nothing 
definite can be known, upon which assuredly no pronounce- 
ment will be made. 

In the first place, the name Devil is commonly given to 
the fallen angels, who are also called Demons. The exact 
technical distinction between the two terms in ecclesiastical 
usage may be seen in the phrase used in the decree of the 
Fourth Lateran Council! : ‘‘ Diabolus enim et alii daemones.”’ 
(The devil and the other demons), i.e. all are demons, and 

51 


52 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


the chief of the demons is called the Devil. This distinction 
is preserved in in the Vulgate New Testament, where diabolus 
represents the Greek d:a8oXos, and in almost every instance 
refers to Satan himself, whilst his subordinate angels are 
described, in accordance with the Greek, as damones or 
demonia. But save in some highly specialized context when 
the most meticulous accuracy is required, we now use the 
words ‘“‘ devil,” ‘‘ demon” indifferently, and employ the 
definite article to denote Lucifer (Satan), chief of the devils, 
The Devil. So in S. Matthew xxy. 41, is written ‘the 
devil and his angels.”” The Greek word é:a8o0A0s means a 
slanderer, an accuser, and in this sense is it applied to him 
of whom it is said ‘“‘the accuser [0 kxatyyopos] of our 
brethren is cast forth, who accused them before our God 
day and night” (Apocalypse xii. 10). Thus it answers to 
the Hebrew name Satan, which signifies an adversary, an 
accuser. 

Mention is made of the Devil in many passages both of 
the Old and New Testaments, but much is left in obscurity, 
and the full Scriptural teaching on the legions of evil can 
best be ascertained by combining the scattered notices and | 
reading them in the light of patristic and theological tradi- 
tion. The authoritative teaching of the Church is declared 
in the Decrees of the Fourth Lateran Church (cap. 1. Firmiter 
credimus), wherein, after setting forth that God in the begin- 
ning had created two creatures, the spiritual and corporeal ; 
that is to say, the angelic and the earthly, and lastly man, 
who was made of both earth and body; the Council con- 
tinues: “‘ For the Devil and the other demons were created 
by God naturally good; but they themselves of themselves 
became evil.”? The dogma is here clearly laid down that 
the Devil and the other demons are spiritual or angelic 
creatures created by God in a state of innocence, and that 
they became evil by their own free act. It is added that 
man sinned by suggestion of the Devil, and that in the next 
world the reprobate and impenitent will suffer punishment 
with him. This then is the actual dogma, the dry bones of 
the doctrine, so to speak. But later theologians have added 
a great deal to this,—the authoritative Doctor Eximius, 
Francisco Suarez, S.J.,3 De Angelis, VII, is especially valuable 
—and much of what they deduce cannot be disputed without 


THE WORSHIP OF THE WITCH 53 


such rejection incurring the grave censure technically known 
as ‘‘ Krroneous.’’# 

It is remarkable that for an account of the Fall of the 
angels, which happened before the creation of the world, 
we must turn to the last book in the Bible, the Apocalypse 
of S. John. For although the picture of the past be blended 
with prophecies of what shall be in the future, thus must we 
undoubtedly regard the vision of Patmos. ‘‘ And there was 
a great battle in heaven, Michael and-his angels fought with 
the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels: and they 
prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in 
heaven. And that great dragon was cast out, that old 
serpent, who is called the Devil, and Satan, who seduceth 
the whole world; and he was cast down unto the earth, 
and his angels were thrown down with him ”’ (Apocalypse 
xii. 7-9). To this may be added the words of 8S. Jude: 
‘“* And the angels who kept not their principality, but forsook 
their own habitation, he hath reserved under darkness in 
everlasting chains, unto the judgement of the great day.” 
To these references should be added a striking passage from 
the prophet Isaiah: ‘‘ How art thou fallen from heaven, 
O Lucifer, who didst rise in the morning ! how art thou fallen 
to the earth, that didst wound the nations! And thou saidst 
in thy heart: I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my 
throne above the stars of God, I will sit in the mountain 
of the covenant, in the sides of the north. I will ascend 
above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the most High. 
But yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, into the depth 
of the pit’ (Isaiah xiv. 12-15). The words of the prophet 
may in one sense, perhaps primarily, be directed against 
Merodach-baladan, King of Babylon, but all the early Fathers 
and later commentators are agreed in understanding the 
passage as applying with deeper significance to the fall of 
the rebel angel. This interpretation is confirmed by the 
words of Our Lord to His disciples: ‘‘ I saw Satan like 
lightning falling from heaven.’? (Uidebam Satanam sicut 
fulgur de ccelo cadentem.) S. Luke x. 18. 

An obvious question which next arises and which has been 
amply discussed by the theologians is : What was the nature 
of the sin of the rebel angels? This point presents some 
difficulty, for theology has logically formed the highest 


54 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


estimate of the perfection of the angelic nature, the powers 
and possibilities of the angelic knowledge. Sins of the flesh 
are certainly impossible to angels, and from many sins which 
are purely spiritual and intellectual they would seem to be 
equally debarred. The great offence of Lucifer appears to 
have been the desire of independence of God and equality 
with God. 

It is theologically certain that Lucifer held a very high 
rank in the celestial hierarchy, and it is evident that he 
maintains some kind of sovereignty over those who followed 
him in his rebellion: ‘“‘Si autem,’’ says Our Lord, “ et 
Satanas in seipsum diuisus est quomodo stabit regnum eius ? ”’ 
(If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his 
kingdom stand?) And S. Paul speaks of ‘“ Principem 
potestatis eris huius, qui nunc operatur in filios diffidentiz.”’ 
(The Prince of the power of this air, who now worketh in 
the sons of disobedience) Ephesians ii. 2. It may seem 
strange that those rebellious spirits who rose against their 
Maker should be subordinate to and obey one of their 
fellows who led them to destruction, but this in itself is a 
proof that Lucifer is a superior intelligence, and the know- 
ledge of the angels would show them that they can effect 
more mischief and evil by co-operation and organization, 
although their unifying principle is the bond of hate, than 
by anarchy and division. There can be little doubt that 
among their ranks are many mean and petty spirits>—to 
speak comparatively—but even these can influence and 
betray foolish and arrogant men. We shall be on safe ground 
if we follow the opinion of Suarez, who would allow Lucifer 
to have been the highest of all angels negatively, i.e. that 
no one was higher, although many (and among these the 
three great Archangels, 8. Michael, S. Gabriel, S. Raphael) 
may have been his equals. 

It has been argued that the highest of the angels, by reason 
of their greater intellectual illumination, must have entirely 
realized the utter impossibility of attaining to equality with 
God. So 8S. Anselm, De Casu Diaboli (IV), says: ‘‘ Non 
enim ita obtuse mentis [diabolus] erat, ut nihil aliud simile 
Deo cogitari posse nesciret ?’’ (The devil was surely not 
so dull of understanding as to be ignorant of the incon- 
ceivability of any other entity like to God ?) And S. Thomas 


THE WORSHIP OF THE WITCH 55 


writes, in answer to the question, whether the Devil desired 
to be ‘‘as God,” “if by this we mean equality with God, 
then the Devil would not desire it, since he knew this to 
be impossible.”? But as the Venerable Duns Scotus, Doctor 
subtilis, admirably points out, we must distinguish between 
efficacious volition and the volition of complaisance, and by 
the latter act an angel could desire that which is impossible. 
In the same way he shows that, though a creature cannot 
directly will its own destruction, it may do this consequenter, 
i.e. it can will something from which this would inevitably 
follow. 

And although man must realize that he cannot be God, 
yet there have been men who have caused themselves to be 
saluted as God and even worshipped as God. Such was 
Herod Agrippa I, who on a festival day at Cesarea, had 
himself robed in a garment made wholly of silver, and came 
into the crowded theatre early in the morning, so that his 
vesture shone out in the rays of the sun with dazzling light, 
and the superstitious multitude, taught by his flatterers, 
cried out that he was a god, and prayed to him as 
divine, saying: ‘‘ Be thou merciful unto us, for although 
we have hitherto reverenced thee only as a man yet hence- 
forth we own thee to be god.’’® Caligula, also, arrogated to 
himself divinity. ‘‘ Templum etiam numini suo proprium, 
et sacerdotes et excogitatissimas hostias instituit.”’? (He also 
built a temple in honour of his own godhead, and consecrated 
priests to offer him most splendid sacrifices.) This emperor, 
moreover, set up his statue in the Temple at Jerusalem, and 
ordered victims to be sacrificed to him. Domitian, with 
something more than literary compliment, is addressed by 
Martial as ‘‘ Dominus Deusque noster’’§ (Our Lord and 
our God), and he lived up to his title. Heliogabalus identified 
himself in some mystic way with the deity of Edessa, and 
ordered no god save himself to be worshipped at Rome, nay, 
throughout the wide world: ‘‘ Taking measures that at Rome 
no god should be honoured save Heliogabalus alone... . 
Nor did he wish to stamp out only the various Roman cults, 
but his desire was that all the whole wide world through, 
only one god, Heliogabalus, should everywhere be wor- 
shipped.’’® To cite further examples, and they are numerous, 
from Roman history were superfluous.1° Perhaps the most 


56 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


astounding case of all was that of the Persian king, Khosroes 
(IXhusrau) II, who in the seventh century sacked Jerusalem 
and carried off the True Cross to his capital. Intoxicated 
with success he announced by solemn proclamation that he 
was Almighty God. He built an extraordinary palace or 
tower, in which there were vast halls whose ceilings were 
painted with luminous suns, moons, and stars to resemble 
the firmament. Here he sat upon a lofty throne of gold, 
a tiara upon his head, his cope so sewn with diamonds that 
the stuff could not be seen, sceptre and orb in his hands, 
upon one side the Cross, upon the other a jewelled dove, and 
here he bade his subjects adore him as God the Father, 
offering incense and praying him “‘ Through the Son.” This 
insane blasphemy was ended when the Persians were van- 
quished by the Emperor Heraclius, and in the spring of 629 
the Cross was restored to Jerusalem.1! 

Montanus, the Phrygian heretic of the second century, 
who had originally, as S. Jerome tells us, been a priest of 
Cybele, actually claimed to be the Trinity. “I am the 
Father, the Word, and the Paraclete,”’!? he said, and again, 
‘“*T am the Lord God omnipotent who have descended into 
aman... neither an angel, nor an ambassador, but I, the 
Lord, the Father, am come.’’!8 Elipandus of Toledo in the 
eighth century spoke of Christ as ‘‘a God among gods,” 
inferring that there were many others who had been divine. 
One may compare the incarnate gods adored in China and 
Tibet to-day. A Bohemian woman named Wilhelmina, who 
died in Milan, 1281, declared herself to be an incarnation 
of the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, and was actually 
worshipped by crowds of fanatics, who caused great scandal 
and disorder. The Khlysti in Russia have not only prophets 
but “* Christs ”? and ‘‘ Redeemers,’’ and they pray to one 
another. About 1830 there appeared in one of the American 
states bordering upon Kentucky an impostor who declared 
himself to be Christ. He threatened the world with immediate 
judgement, and a number of ill-balanced and _ hysterical 
subjects were much affected by his denunciations. One day, 
when he was addressing a large gathering in his usual strain, 
a German standing up humbly asked him if he would repeat 
his warnings in German for the benefit of those present who 
only knew that tongue. The speaker answered that he had 


THE WORSHIP OF THE WITCH 57 


never been able to learn that language, a reply which seemed 
so ludicrous in one claiming divinity that many of the 
auditors were convulsed with laughter and so profane a 
eharlatan soon lost all credit. Monsignor Flaget, Bishop of 
Bardstoun, wrote an account of this extraordinary imposture 
in a letter dated 4 May, 1833,!4 where he says the scene took 
place some three years before. About 1880 at Patiala in the 
Punjaub, a fanatic of filthy appearance named Hakim Singh 
gave himself out to be Christ, and in a short time had a 
following of more than four thousand persons, but within a 
few months they melted away.15 Many “false Christs ”’ 
have organized Russian sects. In 1840 a man drained the 
peasants of Simboisk and Saratov of their money by declaring 
himself to be the Saviour; about 1880 the founder of the 
bojki, an illiterate fanatic named Sava proclaimed that he 
was the Father, and his kinsman, Samouil, God the Son. 
Ivan Grigorieff, founder of the ‘‘ Russian Mormons,” taught 
that he was divine; and other frenzied creatures, Philipoff, 
Loupkin, Israil of Selengisk, have all claimed to be the 
Messiah and God. 

It is apparent then, that although rationally it should be 
inconceivable that any sentient creature could claim divinity, 
actually the contrary is the case. The sin of Satan would 
appear to have been an attempt to usurp the sovereignty 
of God. This is further borne out by the fact that during 
the Temptation of our Lord the Devil, showing Him “‘ omnia 
regna mundi, et gloriam eorum”’ (all the kingdoms of the 
world and the glory of them), said, ‘‘ Hzc omnia tibi dabo, 
si cadens adoraueris me.”’ (All these will I give Thee, if 
Thou wilt fall down and worship me.) And he is rebuked: 
‘“ Uade Satana: Scriptum est enim: Dominum Deum tuum 
adorabis, et illi soli seruies.”” (Begone, Satan: for it is 
written : The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and Him only 
shalt thou serve.) It should be remarked that Lucifer was 
telling a lie. The kingdoms of this world are not his to offer, 
but only its sins and follies, disappointment and death. But 
here the Devil is demanding that divine honours should be 
paid him. And this claim is perpetuated throughout the 
witch trials. The witches believed that their master, Satan, 
Lucifer, the fiend, the principle of evil, was God, and as 
such they worshipped him with latria, they adored him, they 


58 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


offered him homage, they addressed prayer to him, they 
sacrificed. So Lambert Danéau, Dialogue of Witches (trans. 
1575), asserts: ‘‘The Diuell comaundeth them that they 
shall acknowledge him for their god, cal vpo him, pray to 
him, and trust in him.—Then doe they all repeate the othe 
which they haue geuen vnto him; in acknowledging him 
to be their God.” Cannaert records that the accusation 
against Elisabeth Vlamynex of Alost, 1595, was ‘‘ You were 
not even ashamed to kneel before Belzebuth, whom you 
worshipped.”!® De Lancre, in his Tableau de l’Inconstance des 
mauvais Anges (1618), informs us that when the witches 
presented a young child they fell on their knees before the 
demon and said: ‘‘ Grand Seigneur, lequel i’adore.”’ (Great 
Lord, whom I worship.) The novice joining the witches 
made profession in this phrase: “I abandon myself wholly 
to thy power and I put myself in thy hands, acknowledging 
no other god; and this since there art my god.’’?” The 
words of Silvain Nevillon, tried at Orleans in 1614, are even 
plainer: ‘‘ We say to the Devil that we acknowledge him as 
our master, our god, our creator.’!® In America?’ in 1692, 
Mary Osgood confessed that ‘‘ the devil told her he was her 
God, and that she should serve and worship him.” 

There are numberless instances of prayer offered to the 
Devil by his servants. Henri Boguet, in his Discours des 
Sorciers (Lyons, 1608), relates that Antide Colas, 1598, 
avowed that “‘ Satan bade her pray to him night and morning, 
before she set about any other business.’?® Elizabeth 
Sawyer, the notorious witch of Edmonton (1621), was taught 
certain invocations by her familiar. In her confession to the 
Rev. Henry Goodcole, who visited her in Newgate, upon his 
asking ‘‘ Did the Diuell at any time find you praying when 
he came unto you, and did not the Diuell forbid you to pray 
to Iesus Christ, but to him alone? and did he not bid you 
to pray to him, the Diuell as he taught you?” She replied : 
‘‘He asked of me to whom I prayed, and I answered him 
to Iesus Christ, and he charged me then to pray no more to 
Iesus Christ, but to him the Diuell, and he the Diuell taught 
me this prayer, Sanctibecetur nomen tuum, Amen.’*! So 
as Stearne reports in Confirmation and Discovery of Witch- 
craft (1648), of the Suffolk witches: ‘‘ Hilen, the wife 
of Nicholas Greenleife of Barton in Suffolke, confessed, 


THE WORSHIP OF THE WITCH 59 


that when she prayed she prayed to the Devill and not 
to God.” 

In imitation of God, moreover, the Devil will have his 
miracles, although these are Oavuara, mere delusive wonders 
which neither profit nor convince. Such was the feat of 
Jannes and Mambres, the Egyptian sorcerers, who in 
emulation of Moses changed their rods to serpents. To this 
source we can confidently refer many tricks of Oriental 
jugglers. ‘I am satisfied,” wrote an English officer of rank 
and family, ‘‘ that the performances of the native ‘ wise- 
men’ are done by the aid of familiar spirits. The visible 
growth of a mango tree out of an empty vessel into which 
a little earth is placed, a growth which spectators witness, 
and the secret of which has never been discovered, may not 
be unreasonably referred to the same occult powers which 
enabled the Egyptian magicians of old to imitate the 
miraculous acts which Moses, by God’s command, openly 
wrought in the face of Pharaoh and his people.’’22. In the 
basket-trick, which is performed without preparation in any 
place or spot—a greensward, a paved yard, a messroom—a 
boy is placed under a large wicker basket of conical shape, 
which may be examined and handled by all, and this is then 
stabbed through and through by the fakir with a long sword 
that pierces from side to side. Screams of pain follow each 
thrust, and the weapon is discerned to be covered with fresh 
blood. The cries grow fainter and at length cease altogether. 
Then the juggler uttering cries and incantations dances round 
the basket, which he suddenly removes, and no sign of the 
child is to be seen, no rent in the wicker-work, no stain on 
the steel. But in a few seconds the boy, unharmed and 
laughing, appears running forward from some distant spot. 
In this connexion we may well recall the words of Suarez : 
‘“‘[The Devil] can deceive and trick the senses so that a 
head may appear to be cut off and blood to flow, when in 
truth no such thing is taking place.’’8 

The wizards of Tartary and Tibet, bokte, upon certain 
special days will with great ceremony appear in the temples, 
which are always thronged on these occasions, and whilst 
their disciples howl and shriek out invocations, they suddenly 
throw aside their robes and with a sharp knife seem to rip 
open their stomachs from top to bottom, whilst blood pours 


60 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


from the gaping wound. The worshippers, lashed to frenzy, 
fall prostrate before them and grovel frantically upon the 
floor. The wizard appears to scatter his blood over them, 
and after some five minutes he passes his hands rapidly 
over the wound, which instantly disappears, not leaving 
even the trace of a scar. The operator is noticed to be over- 
come with intense weariness, but otherwise all is well. Those 
who have seen this hideous spectacle assure us that it cannot 
be explained by any hallucination or legerdemain, and the 
only solution which remains is to attribute it to the glamour 
cast over the deluded crowd by the power of discarnate evil 
intelligences.?4 7 

The portentous growth of Spiritism,?5 which within a 
generation passed beyond the limits of a popular and 
mountebank movement and challenged the serious attention 
and expert inquiry of the whole scientific and philosophical 
world, furnishes us with examples of many extraordinary 
phenomena, both physical and psychical, and these, in spite 
of the most meticulous and accurate investigation, are simply 
inexplicable by any natural and normal means, Such 
phenomena have been classified by Sir William Crookes, in 
his Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism. They include 
the movement of heavy bodies without contact, or with 
contact altogether insufficient to explain the movement; the 
alteration of weight of bodies ; the rising of tables and chairs 
off the ground without contact with any human person ; 
the levitation of human beings; “‘ apports,’’ objects such as 
flowers, coins, pieces of stone conveyed into a hermetically 
closed room without any visible agency to carry them; 
luminous appearances ; more or less distinct phantom faces 
and forms. In spite of continual and most deliberate 
trickery, repeated and most humiliating exposure, and this 
not only in the case of cheap charlatans but also of famous 
mediums such as William Eglinton, there occur and have 
always occurred phenomena which are vouched for upon the 
evidence of names whose authority cannot be gainsaid. Do 
such manifestations proceed from the spirits of the departed 
or from intelligences which have never been in human form ? 
Kven avowed believers in a beneficent Spiritism, anxious to 
establish communication with dead friends, are forced to 
admit the frequent and irresponsible action of non-human 


THE WORSHIP OF THE WITCH 61 


intelligences. This conclusion is based upon lengthy and 
detailed evidence which it is only possible very briefly to 
summarize. It proves almost impossible satisfactorily to 
establish spirit identity, to ascertain whether the com- 
municator is actually the individual he or it purports to be; 
the information imparted is not such as would naturally be 
expected from those who have passed beyond this life but 
trivial and idle to a degree ; the statements which the spirits 
make concerning their own condition are most contradictory 
and confused; the moral tone which pervades these mes- 
sages, at first vague and unsatisfactory, generally becomes 
repulsive and even criminally obscene. All these particulars 
unmistakably point to demoniac intervention and deceit.2¢ 
The Second Plenary Council of Baltimore (1866) whilst 
making due allowance for fraudulent practice and subtle 
sleights in Spiritism declares that some at least of the 
manifestations are to be ascribed to Satanic intervention, 
for in no other manner can they be explained. (Decreta, 
33-41.) A decree of the Holy Office, 80 March, 1898, con- 
demns Spiritistic practices, even though intercourse with 
evil spirits be excluded and intercourse sought only with 
good angels. 

Not only with miracles but also in prophecies does Lucifer 
seek to emulate that God Whose Throne he covets. This 
point is dealt with by Bishop Pierre Binsfeld, who in his 
De Maleficis (1589) writes : ‘‘ Nunc uidendum est an demones 
prescientiam habeant futurorum et secretorum, ita ut 
ex eorum reuelatione possit homo prognosticare2’ et occulta 
cognoscere ? .. . Prima conclusio: Futura, si in Selpsis 
considerentur, anullo preterquam a solo Deo cognosci 
possunt.” (Next we will inquire whether devils can have 
any foreknowledge of future events or of hidden things so 
that a man might from their revelations to him foretell the 
future and discover the unknown? . .. First conclusion : 
The future, precisely considered, can be known to none save 
to God alone.) But it must be borne in mind that the 
intelligence of angels, though fallen, is of the acutest order, 
as Simon Maiolo in his Dies caniculares explains: “‘ Astutia, 
sapientia, acumine longe superant homines, et longius pro- 
grediuntur ratiocinando.” (In shrewdness, knowledge, per- 
spicuity, they far excel mankind, and they can look much 


62 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


further into the future by logical deduction.) And it is 
in this way that a demon will often rightly divine what is 
going to happen, although more often the response will either 
be a lie or wrapped up in meaningless and ambiguous phrase, 
such as were the pagan oracles. A notable example of false 
prophets may be found in the Camisards (probably from 
camise, a black blouse worn as a uniform), a sect of evil 
fanatics who terrorized Dauphiné, Vivarais, and chiefly the 
Cévennes at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Their 
origin was largely due to the Albigensian spirit, which had 
never been wholly stamped out in that district, and which 
was fanned to flame by the anarchical preaching and dis- 
ordered pamphlets of the French Calvinists, such as Jurieu’s 
Accomplissement des prophéties. Pope Clement XI styles the 
Camisards ‘‘ that execrable race of ancient Albigenses.” 
De Serre, a rank old Calvinist of Dieulefit in Dauphine, 
became suddenly inspired and a wave of foul hysteria spread 
far and wide. In 1702 the saintly abbé de Chaila was 
treacherously murdered by these wretches, who seized arms 
and formed themselves into offensive bands under such 
ruffians as Séguier, Laporte, Castanet, Ravenal, and Cavalier. 
Louis XIV sent troops to subdue them, but the Catholic 
leaders at first do not seem to have appreciated the serious- 
ness of the position, and a desultory guerilla warfare dragged 
on for some years. Cavalier escaped to England,?* whence he 
returned in 1709, and attempted to kindle a revolt in Vivarais. 
On 8 March, 1715, by a proclamation and medals, Louis XIV 
announced that these demoniacs were entirely extinct. 

A number of these prophets fled to England, where they 
created great disturbances, and Voltaire, Siécle de Louis XIV, 
XXXVI, tells us that one of the leading refugees, a notorious 
rebel, Elie Marion, became so obnoxious on account of his 
avertissements prophétiques and false miracles, that he was 
expelled the country as a common nuisance.?° 

The existence of evil discarnate intelligences having been 
orthodoxly established, a realm which owns one chief, and 
it is reasonable to suppose, many hierarchies, a kingdom 
that is at continual warfare with all that is good, ever striving 
to do evil and bring man into bondage; it is obvious that if 
he be so determined man will be able in some way or another 
to get into touch with this dark shadow world, and however 


THE WORSHIP OF THE WITCH 63 


rare such a connexion may be it is, at least, possible. It 
is this connexion with its consequences, conditions, and 
attendant circumstances, that is known as Witchcraft. 
The erudite Sprenger in the Malleus Maleficarum expressly 
declares that in his opinion a denial of the possibility of 
Witchcraft is heresy. ‘‘ After God Himself hath spoken of 
magicians and sorcerers, what infidel dare doubt that they 
exist ?”’ writes Pierre de Lancre in his L’Incredulité et 
Mescreance du Sortilége (Paris, 1622). That eminent lawyer 
Blackstone, in his Commentaries (1765), IV, 4, asserts: ‘‘ To 
deny the possibility, nay, actual existence of Witchcraft 
and Sorcery, is at once flatly to contradict the revealed Word 
of God in various passages both of the Old and New Testa- 
ment ; and the thing itself is a truth to which every Nation 
in the World hath in its turn borne testimony, either by 
examples seemingly well attested, or by prohibitory laws, 
which at least suppose the possibility of commerce with evil 
spirits.’’ Even the ultra-cautious—I had almost said sceptical 
—Father Thurston acknowledges: ‘‘In the face of Holy 
Scripture and the teaching of the Fathers and theologians 
the abstract possibility of a pact with the Devil and of a 
diabolical interference in human affairs can hardly be 
denied.”” Imposture, trickery, self-deception, hypnotism, a 
morbid imagination have, no doubt, all played an important 
part in legends of this kind. It is not enough quite sincerely 
to claim magical powers to possess them in reality. Plainly, 
a man who not only firmly believes in a Power of evil but 
also that this Power can and does meddle with and mar 
human affections and human destinies, may invoke and 
devote himself to this Power, may give up his will thereunto, 
may ask this Power to accomplish his wishes and ends, and 
so succeed in persuading himself that he has entered into a 
mysterious contract with evil whose slave and servant he 
is become.31_ Moreover, as we should expect, the records 
teem with instances of common charlatanry, of cunning 
villainies and crime masquerading under the cloak of super- 
stition, of clever fraud, of what was clearly play acting and 
mumming to impress the ignorant and vulgar, of diseased 
vanity, sick for notoriety, that craved the name and reputa- 
tion of witch, of quackery and cozening that proved lucrative 
and comfortable enough. 


64 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


But when every allowance has been made, as we examine 
in detail the long and bloody history of Witchcraft, as we 
recognize the fearful fanaticism and atrocious extravagances 
of the witch mania, as we are enabled to account for in the 
light of ampler knowledge, both psychological and physical, 
details and accidents which would have inevitably led to 
the stake without respite or mercy, as we can elucidate case 
after case—one an hysterical subject, a cataleptic, an 
epileptic, a sufferer from some obscure nervous disorder even 
to-day not exactly diagnosed; another, denounced by the 
malice of private enemies, perhaps on political grounds; a 
third, some doting beldame the victim of idlest superstition 
or mere malignity ; a fourth, accused for the sake of gain 
by a disappointed blackmailer or thief; others, silly bodies, 
eccentrics, and half-crazed cranks; and the even greater 
number of victims who were incriminated by poor wretches 
raving in the agonies of the rack and boots ;—none the less 
after having thus frankly discounted every possible cir- 
cumstance, after having completely realized the world-wide 
frenzy of persecution that swept through those centuries of 
terror, we cannot but recognize that there remain innumer- 
able and important cases which are not to be covered by any 
ordinary explanation, which fall within no normal category. 
As a most unprejudiced writer has well said: ‘* The under- 
lying and provocative phenomena had really been present 
in a huge number of cases.’°?, And there is no other way of 
accounting for these save by acknowledging the reality of 
Witchcraft and diabolic contracts. It must be steadily 
remembered that the most brilliant minds, the keenest 
intelligences, the most learned scholars, the noblest names, 
men who had heard the evidence at first hand, all firmly 
believed in Witchcraft. Amongst them are such supreme 
authorities as S. Augustine, ‘‘ a philosophical and theological 
genius of the first order, dominating, like a pyramid, antiquity 
and the succeeding ages ’’*3; Blessed Albertus Magnus, the 
‘* Universal Doctor” of encyclopedic knowledge ; S. Thomas 
Aguinas, Doctor Angelicus, one of the profoundest intellects 
the world has ever seen; the Seraphic S. Bonaventura, most 
loving of mystics ; Popes not a few, Alexander IV, the friend 
of the Franciscans, prudent, kindly, deeply religious, “‘ assi- 
duous in prayer and strict in abstinence’’3*; John XXII, 


THE WORSHIP OF THE WITCH 65 


‘‘a man of serious character, of austere and simple habits, 
broadly cultivated ’’>; Benedict XII, a pious Cistercian 
monk, most learned in theology; Innocent VIII, a magni- 
ficent prelate, scholar and diplomatist; Gregory XV, an 
expert in canon and civil law, most just and merciful of 
pontiffs, brilliantly talented. We have the names of learned 
men, such as Gerson, Chancellor of Notre-Dame and of the 
University of Paris, ‘“‘ justly regarded as one of the master 
intellects of his age ’’°*; James Sprenger, O.P., who for all 
his etymological errors was a scholar of vast attainments ; 
Jean Bodin, “ one of the chief founders of political philosophy 
and political history °°; Erasmus; Bishop Jewell, of 
Salisbury, ‘“‘one of the ablest and most authoritative ex- 
pounders of the true genius and teaching of the reformed 
Church of England ’’?’; the gallant Raleigh ; Lord Bacon ; 
Sir Edward Coke; Cardinal Mazarin ; the illustrious Boyle ; 
Cudworth, ‘“‘ perhaps the most profound of all the great 
scholars who have adorned the English Church ’’3*; Selden ; 
Henry More; Sir Thomas Browne; Joseph Glanvill, who 
‘has been surpassed in genius by few of his successors ’’?® ; 
Meric Casaubon, the learned Prebendary of Canterbury ; Sir 
Matthew Hale; Sir George Mackenzie ; William Blackstone ; 
and many another divine, lawyer, scholar, of lesser note. It 
is inconceivable that all these, mistaken as they might be 
in some details, should have been wholly deluded and 
beguiled. The learned Sinistrari in his De Demonialitate,?® 
upon the authoritative sentence of Francesco-Maria Guazzo, 
an Ambrosian, (Compendium Maleficarum, Liber I. 7), writes : 
‘** Primo, ineunt pactum expressum cum Demone aut alio 
Mago seu Malefico uicem Demonis gerente, et testibus 
preesentibus de seruitio diabolico suscipiendo: Demon uero 
uice uersa honores, diuitias, et carnales delectationes illis 
pollicetur.”’ (Firstly, the Novices have to conclude with the 
Demon, or some other Wizard or Magician acting in the 
Demon’s place, an express compact by which, in the presence 
of witnesses, they enlist in the Demon’s service, he giving 
them in exchange his pledge for honours, riches, and carnal 
pleasures.) . 

It is said that the formal pact was sometimes verbal, 
sometimes a signed document. In every case it was voluntary, 
and as Gorres points out, the usual initiation into these foul 

F 


66 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


mysteries was through some secret society at an asseblym 
of which the neophyte bound himself with terrific oathsnd a 
blasphemy to the service of evil. But there are cases which 
can only be explained by the materialization of a dark 
intelligence who actually received a bond from the worshipper. 
These are, of course, extremely rare; but occasionally the 
judges were able to examine such parchments and deeds. 
In 1453 Guillaume Edelin, Prior of S. Germain-en-Laye, 
signed a compact with the Devil, and this was afterwards 
found upon his person. Pierre de Lancre relates that the 
witch Stevenote de Audebert, who was burned in January, 
1619, showed him ‘‘le pacte & conuention qu’elle auoit 
faict auec le Diable, escrite en sang de menstrues, & si horrible 
qu’on auoit horreur de la regarder.”’®® In the library at Upsala 
is preserved the contract by which Daniel Salthenius, in later 
life Professor of Hebrew at Koningsberg, sold himself to Satan. 

In the archives of the Sacred Office is preserved a picture 
of the Crucifixion of which the following account is given: 
A young man of notoriously wicked life and extreme impiety 
having squandered his fortune, and being in desperate need, 
resolved to sell himself body and soul to Lucifer on condition 
that he should be supplied with money enough to enable 
him to indulge in all the luxuries and lusts he desired. It is 
said the demon assumed a visible form, and required him 
to write down an act of self-donation to hell. This the youth 
consented to do on one proviso. He asked the demon if he 
had been present on Calvary, and when he was answered in 
the affirmative he insisted that Lucifer should trace him an 
exact representation of the Crucifixion, upon which he would 
hand over the completed document. The fiend after much 
hesitation consented, and shortly produced a picture. But 
at the sight of the racked and bleeding Body stretched on 
the Cross the youth was seized with such contrition that 
falling upon his knees he invoked the help of God. His 
companion disappeared, leaving the fatal contract and picture. 
The penitent, in order to gain absolution for so heinous guilt, 
was obliged to have recourse to the Cardinal Penitentiary, 
and the picture was taken in charge by the Holy Office. 
Prince Barberini afterwards obtained permission to have 
any exact copy made of it, and this eventually he presented 
to the Capuchins at S. Maria della Concezione. 


THE WORSHIP OF THE WITCH 67 


A contract with Satan was said always to be signed in the 
blood of the executor. ‘‘ The signature is almost invariably 
subscribed with the writer’s own blood. ... Thus at 
Augsburg Joseph Egmund Schultz declared that on the 
15 May, 1671, towards midnight, when it was betwixt eleven 
and twelve of the clock, he threw down, where three cross- 
roads met, an illuminated parchment, written throughout in 
his own blood and wrapped up in a fair kerchief, and thus 
he sealed the compact . . . Widmann also tells us how that 
unhappy wretch Faust slightly cut his thumb and with the 
drops of blood which trickled thence devoted himself in 
writing body and soul to the Devil, utterly repudiating God’s 
part in him.” 4° From the earliest times and in many nations 
we find human blood used inviolably to ratify the pledged 
word.*! Rochholz, I, 52, relates that it is a custom of 
German University freshmen (Burschen) for the parties to 
write “ mutually with their own blood leaves in each other’s 
albums.” The parchment is still said to be in existence on 
which with his own blood Maximilian, the great and devout 
Bavarian elector, religiously dedicated himself to the Most 
Holy Mother of God. Blood was the most sacred and 
irrevocable of seals, as may be seen in the custom of blood- 
brotherhood when friendship was sworn and alliances con- 
cluded. Hither the blood itself was drunk or wine mixed 
with blood. Herodotus (IV, 70) tells us that the Scythians 
were wont to conclude agreements by pouring wine into an 
earthen vessel, into which the contracting parties having cut 
their arms with a knife let their blood flow and mingle. 
Whereupon both they and the most distinguished of their 
following drank of it. Pomponius Mela, De Situ Orbis, II, 1, 
records the same custom as still existing among them in his 
day: ‘ Not even their alliances are made without shedding 
of blood: the partners in the compact wound themselves, 
and when the blood gushes out they mingle the stream and 
taste of it when it is mixed. This they consider to be the 
most assured pledge of eternal loyalty and trust.’’42 Gyraldus, 
Topographia Hibernorum, XXII, p. 748, says : ‘‘ When the 
Ireni conclude treaties the one drinks the blood of the other, 
which is shed voluntarily for this purpose.” In July, 1891, 
a band of brigands which had existed for three years was 
discovered and broken up in South Italy. It was reported 


68 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


that in the ritual of these outlaws, who were allied to the 
‘“Mala Vita’ of Bari, ‘‘ the neophytes drank blood-brother- 
hood with the captain of the band by sucking out and 
drinking the blood from a scratch wound, which he had 
himself made in the region of his heart.” 

In several grimoires and books of magic, such as The Book 
of Black Magic and of Pacts, The Key of Solomon the King, — 
Sanctum Regnum, may be found goetic rituals as well as 
invocations, and if these, fortunately for the operators, are 
occasionally bootless, it can only be said that Divine Power 
holds in check the evil intelligences. But, as Suarez justly 
observes, even if no response be obtained from the demon 
‘‘ either because God does not allow it, or for some other 
reason we may not know,’’*’ the guilt of the experimenter 
in this dark art and his sin are in no wise lightened.** ‘To- 
wards the end of the eighteenth century a certain Juan Perez, 
being reduced to the utmost misery, vowed himself body and 
soul to Satan if he were revenged upon those whom he 
suspected of injuring him. He consulted more than one 
magician and witch, he essayed more than one theurgic 
ceremonial, but all in vain. Hell was deaf to his appeal. 
Whereupon he openly proclaimed his disbelief in the super- 
natural, in the reality of devils, and mocked at Holy Scripture 
as a fairy tale, a nursery fable. Naturally this conduct 
brought him before the Tribunal of the Holy Office, to whom 
at his first interrogation he avowed the whole story, declaring 
himself ready to submit to any penance they might seem fit 
to inflict. 

Any such pact which may be entered into with the demon 
is not in the slightest degree binding. Such is the authori- 
tative opinion of S. Alphonsus, who lays down that a necro- 
mancer or person who has had intercourse with evil spirits 
now wishing to give up his sorceries is bound: “ 1. Absolutely 
to abjure and to renounce any formal contract or any sort 
of commerce whatsoever he may have entered into with 
demonic intelligences ; 2. To burn all such books, writings, 
amulets, talismans, and other instruments as appertain to 
the black art (i.e. crystals, planchettes, ouija-boards, pagan. 
periapts, and the like); 8. To burn the written contract if 
it be in his possession, but if it be believed that it is held by 
the demon, there is no need to demand its restoration since 


THE WORSHIP OF THE WITCH 69 


it is wholly annulled by penitence; 4. To repair any harm 
he has done and make good any loss.”45 It may be remarked 
that these rules have been found exceedingly useful and 
entirely practical in dealing with mediums and others who 
forsake spiritism, its abominations and fearful dangers. 

There are examples in history, even in hagiography, of 
sorcerers who have been converted. One of the most famous 
of these is S. Theophilus the Penitent ;46 and even yet more 
renowned is 8S. Cyprian of Antioch who, with S. Justina, 
suffered martyrdom during the persecution of Diocletian at 
Nicomedia, 26 September, 304.47 Blessed Gil of Santarem, 
a Portuguese Dominican, in his youth excelled in philosophy 
and medicine. Whilst on his way from Coimbra to the 
University of Paris he fell into company with a courteous 
stranger who offered to teach him the black art at Toledo. 
As payment the stranger required that Gil should make over 
his soul to the Devil and sign the contract with his blood. 
After complying with the conditions he devoted seven years 
to magical studies, and then proceeding to Paris easily 
obtained the degree of doctor of medicine. Gil, however, 
repented, burned his books of spells, and returned to Portugal, 
where he took the habit of S. Dominic. After a long life of 
penitence and prayer he died at Santarem, 14 May, 1205, 
and here his body is still venerated.*® His cult was ratified 
by Benedict XIV, 9 March, 1748. His feast is observed 
14 May. 

The contract made by the witch was usually for the term 
of her life, but sometimes it was only for a number of years, 
at the end of which period the Devil was supposed to kill 
his votary. Reginald Scot remarks: ‘‘ Sometimes their 
homage with their oth and bargaine is receiued for a certeine 
terme of yeares; sometimes for ever.’’49 Magdalena de la 
Cruz, a Franciscan nun, born at Aquilar in 1487, entered the 
convent of Santa Isabel at Cordova in 1504. She acquired 
an extraordinary reputation for sanctity, and was elected 
abbess in 1533, 1536, and 1539. Scarcely five years later 
she was a prisoner of the Inquisition, with charges of Witch- 
craft proven against her. She confessed that in 1499 a spirit 
who called himself by the grotesque name Balbar, with a 
companion Pithon, appeared to her at the tender age of 
twelve, and she made a contract with him for the space of 


70 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


forty-one years. In 1543 she was seized with a serious illness, 
during which she confessed her impostures and demonic 
commerce. She was confined for the rest of her life as a 
penitent in a house of the utmost austerity. Joan Williford, 
a witch of Faversham, acknowledged ‘“‘that the Devil 
promised to be her servant about twenty yeeres, and that 
the time is now almost expired.’’5° In 1646 Elizabeth Weed, 
a witch of Great Catworth in Huntingdonshire, confessed that 
“the Devill then offer’d her that hee would doe what mis- 
chiefe she should require him; and said she must covenant 
with him that he must have her soule at the end of one and 
twenty years which she granted.’’®! In 1664, a Somerset 
sorceress, Elizabeth Style, avowed that the Devil ‘‘ promised 
her Mony, and that she should live gallantly, and have the 
pleasure of the World for Twelve years, if she would with 
her Blood sign his Paper, which was to give her Soul to 
toma 53 | | 

Satan promises to give his votaries all they desire; know- 
ledge, wealth, honours, pleasure, vengeance upon their 
enemies ; and all that he can give is disappointment, poverty, 
misery, hate, the power to hurt and destroy. He is ever 
holding before their eyes elusive hopes, and so besotted are 
they that they trust him and confide in him until all is lost. 
Sometimes in the case of those who are young the pact is 
for a short while, but he always renews it. So at Lille in 1661 
Antoinette Bourignon’s pupils confessed : ‘‘ The Devil gives 
them a Mark, which Marks they renew as often as those 
Persons have any desire to quit him. The Devil reproves 
them the more severely, and obligeth them to new Promises, 
making them also new Marks for assurance or Pledge, that 
those Persons should continue faithful to him.’ 

The Devil’s Mark to which allusion is here made, or the 
Witches’ Mark, as it is sometimes called, was regarded as 
perhaps the most important point in the identification of a 
witch, it was the very sign and seal of Satan upon the actual 
flesh of his servant, and any person who bore such a mark 
was considered to have been convicted and proven beyond 
all manner of doubt of being in league with and devoted to | 
the service of the fiend. This mark was said to be entirely 
insensible to pain, and when pricked, however deeply, it 
did not bleed. So Mr. John Bell, minister at Gladsmuir, in 


THE WORSHIP OF THE WITCH 71 


his tract The Trial of Witchcraft; or Witchcraft Arraigned 
and Condemned, published early in the eighteenth century, 
explains: ‘‘ The witch mark is sometimes like a blew spot, 
or a little tate, or reid spots, like flea biting ; sometimes also 
the flesh is sunk in, and hollow, and this is put in secret 
places, as among the hair of the head, or eye-brows, within 
the lips, under the arm-pits,,and in the most secret parts 
of the body.” Robert Hink, minister at Aberfoill, in his 
Secret Commonwealth (1691), writes: ‘‘A spot that I have 
seen, as a small mole, horny, and brown-coloured; throw 
which mark, when a large pin was thrust (both in buttock, 
nose, and rooff of the mouth), till it bowed and became 
crooked, the witches both men and women, nather felt a 
pain nor did bleed, nor knew the precise time when this was 
doing to them, (their eyes only being covered).”” This mark 
was sometimes the complete figure of a toad or a bat; or, 
as Delrio says, the slot of a hare, the foot of a frog, a spider, 
a deformed whelp, a mouse.®4 The same great authority 
informs us on what part of the body it was usually impressed : 
‘““In men it may often be seen under the eyelids, under the 
lips, under the armpits, on the shoulders, on the fundament ; 
in women, moreover, on the breast or on the pudenda.’’*® 
In his profound treatise De Demonialitate that most erudite 
Franciscan Ludovico Maria Sinistrari writes: “ [Sage seu 
Malefici] sigillantur a Dzmone aliquo charactere, maxime 
ii, de quorum constantia dubitat. Character uero non est 
semper eiusdem forme, aut figure: aliquando enim est 
simile lepori, aliquando pedi bufonis, aliquando aranez, uel 
catello, uel gliri; imprimitur autem in locis corporis magis 
occultis: uiris quidem aliquando sub palpebris, aliquando 
sub axillis, aut labiis, aut humeris, aut sede ima, aut alibi: 
mulieribus autem plerumque in mammis, seu locis mulie- 
bribus. Porro sigillum, quo talia signa imprimuntur, est 
unguis Diaboli.’’ (The Demon imprints upon [the Witches 
or Wizards] some mark, especially on those whose constancy 
he suspects. That mark, moreover, is not always of the 
same shape or figure: sometimes it is the image of a hare, 
sometimes a toad’s leg, sometimes a spider, a puppy, a 
dormouse. It is imprinted on the most hidden parts of the 
body: with men, under the eye-lids, or the armpits, or the 
lips, on the shoulder, the fundament, or somewhere else : 


72 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


with women it is usually on the breasts or the privy parts. 
Now, the stamp which imprints these marks is none other 
but the Devil’s claw.) 

This Mark was made by the Devil, or by the Devil’s 
vicegerent at the Sabbats upon the admission of a new 
witch. ‘‘ The Diuell giveth to euerie nouice a marke, either 
with his teeth or his clawes,’’ says Reginald Scot, Discoverie 
of Witchcraft, 1584. The young witches of Lille in 1661 
confessed that ‘‘ the Devil branded them with an iron awl 
upon some part of the body.”’®* In Scotland, Geillis Duncane, 
maid-servant to the deputy bailiff of Tranent, one David 
Seaton, a wench who was concerned in the celebrated trial 
of Doctor Fian, Agnes Sampson, Euphemia McCalyan, 
Barbara Napier, and their associates, would not confess even 
under torture, ‘‘ whereuppon they suspecting that she had 
been marked by the devill (as commonly witches are) made 
diligent search about her, and found the enemies mark to 
be in her fore crag, or fore part of her throate ; which being 
found, shee confessed that all her doings was done by the 
wicked allurements and entisements of the devil, and that 
she did them by witchcraft.”5’ In 1630 Catharine Oswald 
of Niddrie was found guilty of sorcery, “‘ the advocate for 
the instruction of the assyze producing the declaration of 
two witnesses, that being in the tolbuith, saw Mr. John Aird, 
minister, put a pin in the pannell’s shoulder, (where she 
carries the devill’s mark) up to the heid, and no bluid 
followed theiron, nor she shrinking thereat; which was 
againe done in the justice-depute his own presence.” In 
1643 Janet Barker at Edinburgh confessed to commerce with 
the demon, and stated that he had marked her between the 
shoulders. The mark was found “and a pin being thrust 
therein, it remained for an hour unperceived by the pannell.’’*8 

On 10 March, 1611, Louis Gaufridi, a priest of Accoules 
in the diocese of Marseilles, was visited in prison, where he 
lay under repeated charges of foulest sorcery, by two 
physicians and two surgeons who were appointed to search 
for the Devil’s mark. Their joint report ran as follows: 
‘* We, the undersigned doctors and surgeons, in obedience to 
the directions given us by Messire Anthoine de Thoron, 
sieur de Thoron, Councillor to the King in his Court of 
Parliament, have visited Messire L. Gaufridy, upon whose 


THE WORSHIP OF THE WITCH 73 


body we observed three little marks, not very different in 
colour from the natural skin. The first is upon his right 
thigh, about the middle towards the lower part. When we 
pierced this with a needle to the depth of two fingers breadth 
he felt no pain, nor did any blood or other humour exude 
from the incision. 

‘“The second is in the region of the loins, towards the 
right, about an inch from the spine and some four fingers 
breadth above the femoral muscles. Herein we drove the 
needle for three fingers breath, leaving it fixed in this spot 
for some time, as we had already done in the first instance, 
and yet all the while the said Gaufridy felt no pain, nor was 
there any effluxion of blood or other humour of any kind. 

‘‘The third mark is about the region of the heart. At 
first the needle was introduced without any sensation being 
felt, as in the previous instances. But when the place was 
probed with some force, he said he felt pain, but yet no 
moisture distilled from this laceration. Early the next 
morning we again visited him, but we found that the parts 
which had been probed were neither swollen nor red. In our 
judgement such callous marks which emit no moisture when 
pierced, cannot be due to any ancient affection of the skin, 
and in accordance with this opinion we submit our report 
on this tenth day of March, 1611. 


Fontaine, Grassy, Doctors ; 
Meérindol, Bontemps, Surgeons.’’®® 


On 26 April, 1634, during the famous Loudun trials, Urbain 
Grandier, the accused was examined in order to discover the 
witch-mark. He was stripped naked, blindfolded, and in the 
presence of the officials, René Mannoury, one of the leading 
physicians of the town, conducted the search. Two marks 
were discovered, one upon the shoulder-blade and the other 
upon the thigh, both of which proved insensible even when 
pierced with a sharp silver pin. 

Inasmuch as the discovery of the devil-mark was regarded 
as one of the most convincing indications—if not, indeed, 
an infallible proof—that the accused was guilty since he 
bore indelibly branded upon his flesh Satan’s own sign- 
manual, it is easy to see how the searching for, the recognition 
and the probing of, such marks actually grew to bea profession 


74 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


in which not a few ingenious persons came to be recognized 
as experts and practical authorities. In Scotland, especially, 
the ‘“‘ prickers,’’ as they were called, formed a regular gild. 
They received a good fee for every witch they discovered, 
and, as might be expected, they did not fail to reap a golden 
harvest. At the trial of Janet Peaston, in 1646, the magis- 
trates of Dalkeith ‘‘ caused John Kincaid of Tranent, the 
common pricker, to exercise his craft upon her. He found 
two marks of the Devil’s making ; for she could not feel the 
pin when it was put into either of the said marks, nor did 
the marks bleed when the pin was taken out again. When 
she was asked where she thought the pins were put into her, 
she pointed to a part of her body distant from the real place. 
They were pins of three inches in length.’’®® Another 
notorious pricker was John Bain, upon whose unsupported 
evidence a large number of unfortunate wretches were 
sentenced to death. About 1634 John Balfour of Corhouse 
was feared over all the countryside for his exploits; whilst 
twenty years later one John Dick proved a rival to Kincaid 
himself. The regular trade of these ‘‘common prickers ”’ 
came to be a serious nuisance, and confessedly opened the 
door to all sorts of roguery. The following extraordinary 
incident shows how dangerous and villainous in mountebank 
hands the examinations could become, which, if conducted 
at all, ought at least to be safeguarded by every precaution 
and only entrusted to skilled physicians, who should report 
the result to grave and learned divines. ‘‘ There came then 
to Inverness one Mr. Paterson, who had run over the kingdom 
for triall off witches, and was ordinarily called the Pricker, 
because his way of triall was with a long brass pin. Stripping 
them naked, he alledged that the spell spot was seen and 
discovered. After rubbing over the whole body with his 
palms he slips in the pin, and, it seemes, with shame and fear 
being dasht, they felt it not, but he left it in the flesh, deep 
to the head, and desired them to find and take it out. It is 
sure some witches were discovered but many honest men and 
women were blotted and break by this trick. In Elgin there 
were two killed; in Forres two; and one Margret Duff, a 
rank witch, burned in Inverness. This Paterson came up to 
the Church of Wardlaw, and within the church pricked 14 
women and one man brought thither by the Chisholm of 


THE WORSHIP OF THE WITCH 75 


Commer, and 4 brought by Andrew Fraser, chamerlan of 
Ferrintosh. He first polled all their heads and amassed the 
heap of haire together, hid in the stone dich, and so proceeded 
to pricking.*! Severall of these dyed in prison never brought 
to confession. This villan gaind a great deale off mony, 
haveing two servants; at last he was discovered to be a 
woman disguished in mans cloathes. Such cruelty and 
rigure was sustained by a vile varlet imposture.’’®? No doubt 
in very many, in the majority of instances, these witch-marks 
were natural malformations of the skin, thickened tissue, 
birthmarks—I myself have known a subject who was by 
prenatal accident stamped upon the upper part of the arm 
with the complete figure of a rat—moles, callous warts, or 
spots of some kind. But this explanation will not cover 
all the cases, and even the sceptical Miss Murray who writes : 
** Local anesthesia is vouched for in much of the evidence, 
which suggests that there is a substratum of truth in the 
statements,’ is bound candidly to confess, ‘“‘ but I can at 
present offer no solution of this problem.’’®? Moreover, as 
before noticed, this mark was not infrequently branded upon 
the novice at admission, often by the Witch-Master, who 
presided over the rout, sometimes—it must be admitted— 
by non-human agency. 

The “little Teat or Pap,’’ so often found on the body of 
the wizard or witch, and said to secrete milk which nourished 
the familiar, must be carefully distinguished from the 
insensible devil-mark. This phenomenon, for no explainable 
reason, seems to occur only in the records of England and 
New England, where, however, it is of exceedingly frequent 
occurrence. Jt is worth remarking that in the last act of 
Shadwell’s play, The Lancashire Witches (1681), the witches 
are searched by a woman, who reports “‘ they have all great 
Biggs and Teats in many Parts, except Mother Madge, and 
hers are but small ones.’? Shadwell, who in his voluminous 
notes has citations from nearly fifty authors, on this point 
writes: “‘ The having of Biggs and Teats all modern Witch- 
mongers in England affirm.’** In 1597 at the trial of a 
beldame, Elizabeth Wright, of Stapenhill, near Burton-on- 
Trent: “‘ The old woman they stript, and found behind her 
right sholder a thing much like the vdder of an ewe that 
giueth sucke with two teates, like vnto two great wartes, 


76 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


the one behinde vnder her armehole, the other a hand off 
towardes the top of her shoulder. Being demanded how long 
she had those teates, she answered she was borne so.’’® 
In the case of the Witch of Edmonton, Elizabeth Sawyer, 
who was in spite of her resistance searched upon the express 
order of the Bench, it was found by Margaret Weaver, a 
widow of an honest reputation, and two other grave matrons, 
who performed this duty that there was upon her body “a 
thing like a Teate the bignesse of the little finger, and the 
length of half a finger, which was branched at the top like 
a teate, and seemed as though one had suckt it.’’®* John 
Palmer of St. Albans (1649) confessed that ‘‘ upon his com- 
pact with the Divel, hee received a flesh brand, or mark, 
upon his side, which gave suck to two familiars.’’®’ The 
Kentish witch, Mary Read of Lenham (1652), ‘“‘ had a visible 
Teat, under her Tongue, and did show it to many.’’®§ At 
St. Albans about 1660 there was a wizard who “had like 
a Breast on his side.’’®® In the same year at Kidderminster, 
a widow, her two daughters, and a man were accused; ‘“‘ the 
man had five teats, the mother three, and the eldest daughter, 
one.”’’° In 1692 Bridget Bishop, one of the Salem witches, 
was brought to trial: ‘“‘ A Jury of Women found a preter- 
natural Teat upon her Body: But upon a second search, 
within 3 or 4 hours, there was no such thing to be seen.’’?! 
There is similar evidence adduced in the accounts of Rose 
Cullender and Amy Duny, two Suffolk witches, executed 
in 1664; Elizabeth Horner, a Devon witch (1696); Widow 
Coman, an Essex witch, who died in her bed (1699); and, 
indeed, innumerable other examples might be quoted afford- 
ing a whole catena of pertinent illustrations. No doubt many 
of these are explicable by the cases of polymastia (mamme 
erratice) and polythelia (supernumerary nipples) of which 
there are continual records in recent medical works. It 
must be freely admitted that these anatomical divagations 
are commoner than is generally supposed; frequently they 
are so slight that they may pass almost unnoticed ; doubtless 
there is exaggeration in many of the inexactly observed 
seventeenth-century narratives. However, it has to be said, 
as before, that when every most generous allowance is made, 
the facts which remain, and the details are very ample, 
cannot be covered by physical peculiarities and malformations. 


THE WORSHIP OF THE WITCH 717 


There is far more truth in the records of the old theologians 
and witch finders than many nowadays are disposed to allow. 


NOTES TO CHAPTER II. 


1 Under Innocent ITT, 1215. 

2 Diabolus enim et alii demones a Deo quidem natura creati sunt boni, 
sed ipsi per se facti sunt mali. 

3 Bossuet says that the writings of Suarez contain the whole of Scholastic 
Philosophy. 

4 Since it contradicts a definite (certa) theological conclusion or truth clearly 
consequent upon two premises, of which one is an article of faith (de fide), 
the other naturally certain. : 

5 Which explains much of the trifling and silliness in Spiritism ; the idle 
answers given through the mediums of the influences at work. 

6 Josephus, Antiquities, XIX. 8. 2. 

7 Suetonius, Caligula, XXII. Here ample details of Caligula’s worship 
may be read. 

8 Epigrammatum, V. 8.1. See also IX, 4, et scepius. 

9. ..id agens ne quis Rome deus nisi Heliogabalus coleretur.... 
Nec Romanas tantum extinguere uoluit religiones, sed per orbem terre unum 
studens ut Heliogabalus deus unus ubique coleretur. Ailius Lampridius, 
Antoninus Heliogabalus, 3; 6. 

10 BHyen the Christian (Arian) Constantius II suffered himself to be addressed 
as ‘‘ Nostra AXternitas.”’ 

11 Now commemorated on 14 September, the Feast of the Exaltation 
of Holy Cross. Shortly after the Restoration of the Cross to Jerusalem, the 
wood was cut up (perhaps for greater safety) into small fragments which 
were distributed throughout the Christian world. 

12 Didymus, De Trinitate, III. xh. 

13 Epiphanius, Her., xlviii. 11. 

14 Annales de la Propogation de la Foi, VII (1834), p. 84. 

15 DP. C. J. Ibbetson, Outlines of Punjaub Ethnography, Calcutta. 1883. 

a P+ B 
R 16 | . , vousn’avez pas eu honte de vous agenouiller devant votre Belzebuth, 
que vous avez adoré. J. B. Cannaert, Olim procés des Sorciéres en Belgique, 
Gand, 1847. 

17 Te me remets de tout poinct en ton pouuoir & entre tes mains, ne 
recognois autre Dieu: si bien que tu es mon Dieu. 

18 On dit au Diable nous vous recognoissons pour nostre maistre, nostre 
Dieu, nostre Createur. 

19 John Hutchinson, History of the Province of Massachusett’s Bay, 1828, 
pes. 

20 Satan luy commada de le prier soir & matin, auant qu’elle s’addonat 
a faire autre ceuure. 

21 Wonderful Discoverie of Elizabeth Sawyer, London, 1621. 

22 Rev. F. G. Lee, More Glimpses of the World Unseen, 1878, p. 12. 

23 Potest [diabolus] eludere sensus et facere ut appareat caput abcisum, 
De Religione, |. 2, c. 16, n. 13, t. 13, p. 578. 

24 Huc. Voyage dans la Tartarie, le Thibet et la Chine, I, ix, p. 308. The 
author remarks: Ces cérémonies horribles se renouvellent assez souvent dans 
les grandes lamaseries de la Tartarie et du Thibet. Nous ne pensons nulle- 
ment qu’on puisse mettre toujours sur le compte de la superchérie des faits 
de ce genre: car d’aprés tout ce que nous avons vu et entendu parmi les 
nations idoldtres, nous sommes persuadé que le démon y joue un grand role. 
(These horrible ceremonies frequently occur in the larger lamaseries of Tartary 
and Tibet. I am very certain that we cannot always ascribe happenings of 
this sort to mere juggling or trickery; for, after all that I have seen and 
heard among heathen people, I am confident that the powers of evil are 
very largely concerned therein.) 


78 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


25 T use this term rather than the more popular ‘‘ Spiritualism.’’ Spiritism 
obtains in Italy, France and Germany. ‘“‘ Spiritualism” is correctly a 
technical name for the doctrine which denies that the contents of the universe 
are limited to matter and the properties and operations of matter. 

26 For fuller, and, indeed, conclusive details see Godfrey Raupert’s Modern 
Spiritism, London, 1904; and Monsignor Benson’s Spiritualism, Dublin 
Review, October, 1909, and reprinted by the Catholic Truth Society. 

2” Prognosticare is a late word. Strictly to prognosticate is to deduce from 
actual signs, to prophesy is to foretell the future without any such sign or 
token. 

#8 The Camisards were agreeably satirized by D’Urfey in his comedy 
The Modern Prophets ; or, New Wit for a Husband, produced at Drury Lane, 
5 May, 1709, (Tatler, 11), and printed quarto, 1709, (no date). One of the 
principal characters is ‘‘ Marrogn, A Knavish French Camizar and Priest,”’ 
created by Bowen. This is a portrait of Elie Marion. In his preface D’Urfey 
speaks of ‘‘ the abominable Impostures of those craz’d Enthusiasts ’’ whom 
he lashes. The play had been composed in 1708, but production was post- 
poned owing to the death of the Prince Consort, 28 October of that year. 
Swift, Predictions for the Year 1708, has: ‘‘ June. This month will be 
distinguished at home, by the utter dispersing of those ridiculous deluded 
enthusiasts, commonly called the prophets ; occasioned chiefly by seeing the 
time come, when many of their prophecies should be fulfilled, and then 
finding themselves deceived by contrary events.” 

29 See also Fléchier’s Récit fidéle in Lettres choisies, Lyons, 1715; and 
Brueys’ Histoire du fanatisme de notre temps, Montpellier, 1713. 

8° Aprés que Dieu a parlé de sa propre bouche des magiciens et sorciers, 
qui est l’incredule qui on peut justement douter ? 

81 In the fourteenth century bas-reliefs on cathedrals frequently represent 
men kneeling down before the Devil, worshipping him, and devoting them- 
selves to him as his servants. Martonne, Piété aw Moyen Age, p. 137. 

82 George Ives, A History of Penal Methods, p. 75. His admirable and 
documented chapter IT, ‘‘ The Witch Trials,’ should be carefully read. 

33 Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church. 

34 Matthew Paris, Chronica Maiora. 

hath Wi as EEO Te 

86 All these quotations are from W. H. Lecky, History of Rationalism in 
Europe. c.1 

37 Rev. Peter Lorimer, D.p. 

°8 First published by Isidore Liseux, 1875. p. 21. XIII. Ludovico Maria 
Sinistrari, Minorite, was born at Ameno (Novara) 26 February, 1622. He was 
Consultor to the Supreme Tribunal of the Holy Office; Vicar-general of the 
Archbishop of Avignon, and Theologian Advisory to the Archbishop of Milan. 
He is described as ‘‘ omnium scientiarum uir.’”? He died 6 March, 1701. 

39 L’Incredulité et Mescreance du Sortilege, Paris, 1622, p- 38. 

*° Subscriptio autem sepissime peragitur proprio sanguine... . Sic 
Auguste referebat Joseph Egmund Schultz, se anno 1671. d. 15. Maji sanguine 
proprio tinctum manuscriptum, in membrana, nomine picto, obuolutoque 
muccinio, in media nocte, cum hora undecima & duodecima agebatur, in 
compitum iecisse, atque pactum sic corroborasse . . . Sic de infausto illo 
Fausto Widmannus refert, proprio sanguine ex leuiter uulnerato pollice 
emisso illum se totum diabolo adscripsisse, Deoque repudium misisse. De 
Sagis, Christian Stridtheckh, Lipsiw, 1691. (XXII). 

“1 See Gotz, De subscriptionibus sanguine humano firmatis, Liibeck, 1724. 
Also Scheible, Die Sage vom Faust. Stuttgart, 1847. Sofar as 1am aware 
this point has been neglected by writers on Witchcraft. 

* Ne fcedora quidem incruenta sunt: sauciant se, qui paciscuntur, 
exemtumque sanguinem, ubi permiscuere, degustant. Id putant mansure 
fidei pignus certissimum. 

4°... uel quia Deus non permittit, uel propter alias rationes nobis 
occultas. De Superstitione, VIII. i. 13. 

** Tune autem propria culpa diuinationis iam commissa est ab homine, 


THE WORSHIP OF THE WITCH 79 


etiamsi effectus desideratus non fuerit subsecutus. (For the sin of divination 
is actually committed by the sinner and that willingly, although he obtain 
not the desired effect of his action.) Idem. 

4° Theologia moralis, 1. iii. n. 28. Monendi sunt se teneri 1. Pactum 
expressum, si quod habent cum demone, aut commercium abiurare et 
dissoluere; 2. Libros suos, schedas, ligaturas, aliaque instrumenta artis 
comburere; 3. Comburere chirographum, si habeat: si iuro solus damon 
id habeat, non necessario cogendus est ut reddat, quia pactum sufficienter 
soluitur per pcenitentiam ; 4. Damna illata resarcire. 

46 Bollandists, 4 February. 

47 Breuiarium Romanum, Paris Autumnalis, 26 September, lectio iii. of 
Matins. Upon this history Calderon has founded his great drama El Magico 
Prodigioso. 

48 Bollandists, 14 May. Breuiarium iuata S. Ordinis Preedicatorum. 


50 Hzamination of Joane Williford, London, 1643. 

5t John Davenport, Witches of Huntingdon, London, 1646. 

52 Glanvill, Sadducismus Triumphatus. 

°3 Antoinette Bourignon, La Vie exterieure, Amsterdam, 1683. 

54 Delrio. Disquisitiones magice, |. v. sect. 4. t. 2. Non eadem est forma 
Signi; aliquando est simile leporis uestigio, aliquando bufonis pedi, aliquando 
aranex, uel catello, uel gliri. 

°° Idem. In uirorum enim corpore sepe uisitur sub palpebris, sub labiis, 
sub axillis, in humeris, in sede ima: feminis etiam, in mammis uel mulie- 
bribus locis. 

56. . . le Diable leur fait quelque marque comme avec une aleine de fer 
en quelque partie du corps. 

57 Newes from Scotland, London. (1592.) Roxburgh Club reprint, 1816. 

58 Abbreviate of the Justiciary Record. 

5° Nous, medecins et chirurgiens soussignés, suivant le commandement 
a nous fait par messire Anthoine de Thoron, sieur de Thoron, conseiller du roy 
en sa cour de parlement, avons visité messire L. Gaufridy au corps duquel 
avons remarqué trois petites marques peu differentes en couleur du reste du 
cuir. L’une en sa cuisse sénestre sur le milieu et en la partie inferieure, en 
laquelle ayant enforcé une aiguille environ deux travers de doigts n’a 
senti aucune douleur, ni de la place n’est sorti point de sang ni autre 
humidité. 

La seconde est en la region des lombes en la partie droite, un poulce prés de 
l’épine du dos et quatre doigts au-dessus les muscles de la fesse, en laquelle 
nous avons enfoncé l’aiguille trois travers de doigts, la laissons comme avions 
fait a la premiére plantée en cette partie quelque espace de temps, sans toute- 
fois que le dit Gaufridy ait senti aucune douleur et que sang ni humeur 
quelconque en soit sorti. 

La troisi¢me est vers la région du ceur. Laquelle, au commencement 
qu’on mit laiguille parut comme les autres sans sentiment; mais 4 mesure 
que l’on enfongait fort avant, il dit sentir quelque douleur; ne sortant 
toutefois aucune humidité, et ayant visité le lendemain au matin, n’avons 
reconnu aux parties piquées ni tumeur, ni rougeur. A cause de quoi nous 
disons telles marques insensibles en rendant point d’humidité étant piquées, 
ne pouvoir arriver par aucune maladie du cuir précédante, et tel faisons 
notre rapport ce 10 mars, 1611. Fontaine, Grassy, médecins; Mérindol, 
Bontemps, chirurgiens. 

So great was the importance attached to the discovery of a witch-mark 
upon the body of the accused that when the above medico-legal report was 
read in court, Father Sebastian Michaelis, a learned Dominican, who was 
acting as consultor in the case, horror-struck, involuntarily exclaimed : 
** Good sooth, were we at Avignon this man would be executed to-morrow ! ”’ 
Gaufridi confessed: ‘‘J’advoue que les dites marques sont faites pour 
protestation qu’on sera toujours bon et fidéle serviteur du diable toute la 


80 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


vie.”’ (I confess that these marks were made as a sign that I shall be a good 
and faithful servant to the Devil all my life long.) 

60 Pitcairn, Records of Justiciary. In 1663 Kincaid was thrown into jail, 
where he lay nine weeks for ‘‘ pricking’ without a magistrate’s warrant. 
He was only released owing to his great age and on condition that he would 
‘‘ prick ’’ no more. 

61 This shaving of the head and body was the usual procedure before the 
search for the devil-mark. We find it recorded in nearly every case. Generally 
a barber was called in to perform the operation: e.g. the trials of Gaufridi 
and Grandier, where the details are very ample. 

62 The Wardlaw Manuscript, p. 446. Scottish History Society publication, 
Edinburgh. 

68 The Witch-Cult in Western Hurope, p. 86. 

64 Angelica in Love for Love (1695), II, mocking her superstitious old uncle, 
Foresight, and the Nurse, cries: ‘‘ Look to it, Nurse; I can bring Witness 
that you have a great unnatural Teat under your Left Arm, and he another ; 
and that you Suckle a young Devil in the shape of a Tabby-Cat by turns, 
I can.” 

65 The most wonderfull ... storieofa... Witch named Alse Gooderidge. 
London. 1597. 

66 Goodcole’s Wonderfull Discoverie of Elizabeth Sawyer, London, 1621. 
There is an allusion in Ford and Dekker’s drama, IV : 

Sawyer. My dear Tom-boy, welcome... 
Comfort me: thou shalt haue the teat anon. 
Dog. Bow, wow! I'll haue it now. 

67 W.B. Gerish. The Devil’s Delusions, Bishops Stortford, 1914. 

68 Prodigious and Tragicall Histories, London, 1652. 

69 W. B. Gerish, Relation of Mary Hall of Gadsden, 1912 

70 'T. B. Howell, State Trials, London, 1816. 

71 Cotton Mather, Wonders of the Invisible World. 


CHAPTER III 
DEMONS AND FAMILIARS 


ONE of the most authoritative of the older writers upon 
Witchcraft, Francesco-Maria Guazzo, a member of the 
Congregation of S. Ambrose ad Nemus,? in his encyclopedic 
Compendium Maleficarum, first published at Milan, 1608, 
has drawn up under eleven heads those articles in which a 
solemn and complete profession of Witchcraft was then held 
to consist : 

First: The candidates have to conclude with the Devil, 
or some other Wizard or Magician acting in the Devil’s stead, 
.an express compact by which, in the presence of witnesses 
they devote themselves to the service of evil, he giving them 
in exchange his pledge for riches, luxury, and such things as 
they desire. 

Secondly : They abjure the Catholic Faith, explicitly with- 


- draw from their obedience to God, renounce Christ and in a 


particular manner the Patronage and Protection of Our Lady, 
curse all Saints, and forswear the Sacraments. In Guernsey, 
in 1617, Isabel Becquet went to Rocquaine Castle, ‘the 
usual place where the Devil kept his Sabbath: no sooner 
had she arrived there than the Devil came to her in the form 
of a dog, with two great horns sticking up: and with one 
of his paws (which seemed to her like hands) took her by the 
hand: and calling her by her name told her that she was 
welcome: then immediately the Devil made her kneel down : 
while he himself stood up on his hind legs; he then made 
her express detestation of the Eternal in these words: I 
renounce God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost ; 
and then caused her to worship and invoke himself.’ 
De Lancre tells us that Jeannette d’Abadie, a lass of sixteen, 
confessed that she was made to “renounce & deny her 
Creator, the Holy Virgin, the Saints, Baptism, father, mother, 
relations, Heaven, earth, & all that the world contains.’’? 
G 81 


82 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


In a very full confession made by Louis Gaufridi on the 
second of April, 1611, to two Capuchins, Father Ange and 
Father Antoine, he revealed the formula of his abjuration 
of the Catholic faith. It ran thus: ‘‘I, Louis Gaufridi, 
renounce all good, both spiritual as well as temporal, which 
may be bestowed upon me by God, the Blessed Virgin Mary, 
all the Saints of Heaven, particularly my Patron S. John- 
Baptist, as also S. Peter, S. Paul, and S. Francis, and I give 
myself body and soul to Lucifer, before whom I stand, 
together with every good that I may ever possess (save 
always the benefit of the sacraments touching those who 
receive them). And according to the tenour of these terms 
have I signed and sealed.” Madeleine de la Palud, one of 
his victims, used a longer and more detailed declaration in 
which the following hideous blasphemies occurred: “ With 
all my heart and most unfeignedly and with all my will most 
deliberately do I wholly renounce God, Father, Son, and 
Holy Ghost ; the most Holy Mother of God; all the Angels 
and especially my Guardian Angel, the Passion of Our Lord 
Jesus Christ, His Precious Blood and the merits thereof, my 
lot in Paradise, all the good inspirations which God may 
give me in the future, all prayers which are made or may be 
made for me.’’® 

Thirdly: They cast away with contempt the most Holy 
Rosary, delivered by Our Lady to S. Dominic ;* the Cord 
of S. Francis; the cincture of S. Augustine; the Carmelite 
scapular bestowed upon S. Simon Stock; they cast upon 
the ground and trample under their feet in the mire the Cross, 
Holy Medals, Agnus Dei,’ should they possess such or carry 
them upon their persons. S. Francis girded himself with a 
rough rope in memory of the bonds wherewith Christ was 
bound during His Passion, and a white girdle with three 
knots has since formed part of the Franciscan habit. 
Sixtus IV, by his Bull Exsuperne: dispositionis, erected the 
Archconfraternity of the Cord of S. Francis in the basilica 
of the Sacro Convento at Assisi, enriching it with many 
Indulgences, favours which have been confirmed by pontiff 
after pontiff. Archconfraternities are erected not only in- 
Franciscan but in many other churches and aggregated to 
the centre at Assisi. The Archconfraternity of Our Lady of 
Consolation, or of the Black Leathern Belt of S. Monica, 


PLATE III 


COMF 


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exemplts auflym , Cr remedys io. 
cupletatuim . 
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His addstus ¢'t Exorcs!/mus potentyfimus ea 


‘foluendion omne opus diabolteum ; iste 
HOt Nodus curands febricitattes , 
ad Det sloviam , & hom 
mut folatium . 


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COMPENDIVM MALEFICARVM 
Francesco-Maria Guazzo. Title-page of Second Edition 


( face p, 82 





DEMONS AND FAMILIARS 83 


S. Augustine and S. Nicolas of Tolentino, took its rise from 
a vision of S. Monica, who received a black leathern belt 
from Our Lady. S. Augustine, S. Ambrose, and S. Simplici- 
anus all wore such a girdle, which forms a distinctive 
feature of the dress of Augustinian Eremites. After the 
canonization of S. Nicolas of Tolentino it came into general 
use as an article of devotion, and Eugenius IV in 1489 erected 
the above Archconfraternity. A Bull of Gregory XIII Ad ea 
(15 July, 1575) confirmed this and added various privileges 
and Indulgences. The Archconfraternity is erected in 
Augustinian sanctuaries, from the General of which Order 
leave must be obtained for its extension to other churches. 

Fourthly ; All witches vow obedience and subjection into 
the hands of the Devil; they pay him homage and vassalage 
(often by obscene ceremonies), and lay their hands upon a 
large black book which is presented to them. They bind 
themselves by blasphemous oaths never to return to the true 
faith, to observe no divine precept, to do no good work, but 
to obey the Demon only and to attend without fail the 
nightly conventicles. They pledge themselves to frequent 
the midnight assemblies. These conventicles or covens?® 
(from conuentus) were bands or companies of witches, 
composed of men and women, apparently under the discipline 
of an officer, all of whom for convenience’sake belonged to 
the same district. Those who belonged to a coven were, 
it seems from the evidence at trials, bound to attend the 
weekly Esbat. The arrest of one member of a coven generally 
led to the implication of the rest. Cotton Mather remarks, 
** The witches are organized like Congregational Churches.”’ 

Fifithly: The witches promise to strive with all their 
power and to use every inducement and endeavour to draw 
other men and women to their detestable practices and the 
worship of Satan. 

The witches were imbued with the missionary spirit, which 
made them doubly damnable in the eyes of the divines and 
doubly guilty in the eyes of the law. So in the case of 
Janet Breadheid of Auldearne, we find that her husband 
“enticed her into that craft.”!° A girl named Bellot, of 
Madame Bourignon’s academy, confessed that her mother 
had taken her to the Sabbat when she was quite a child. 
Another girl alleged that all worshippers of the Devil ‘‘ are 


84 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


constrained to offer him their Children.” Elizabeth Francis 
of Chelmsford, a witch tried in 1566, was only about twelve 
years old when her grandmother first taught her the art 
of sorcery.11 The famous Pendle beldame, Elizabeth Dem- 
dike ‘‘ brought vp her owne Children, instructed her Graund- 
children, and tooke great care and paines to bring them to 
be Witches.’’!2, At Salem, George Burroughs, a minister, was 
accused by a large number of women as “‘ the person who 
had Seduc’d and Compell’d them into the snares of Witch- 
eralicy 

Siathly: The Devil administers to witches a kind of 
sacrilegious baptism, and after abjuring their Godfathers and 
Godmothers of Christian Baptism and Confirmation they 
have assigned to them new sponsors—as it were—whose 
charge it is to instruct them in sorcery: they drop their 
former name and exchange it for another, generally a 
scurrilous and grotesque nickname. 

In 1609 Jeanette d’Abadie, a witch of the Basses-Pyrénées, 
confessed ‘‘that she often saw children baptized at the 
Sabbat, and these she informed us were the offspring of 
sorcerers and not of other persons, but of witches who are 
accustomed to have their sons and daughters baptized at 
the Sabbat rather than at the Font.’®= June 20, 1614, at 
Orleans, Silvain Nevillon amongst other crimes acknowledged 
that he had frequented assemblies of witches, and “ that 
they baptize babies at the Sabbat with Chrism. ... Then 
they anoint the child’s head therewith muttering certain 
Latin phrases.’’!4 Gentien le Clerc, who was tried at the 
same time, ‘‘ said that his mother, as he had been told, 
presented him at the Sabbat when he was but three years 
old, to a monstrous goat, whom they called ’Aspic. He said 
that he was baptized at the Sabbat, at Carrior d’Olivet, with 
fourteen or fifteen other children. . . .”’15 

Among the confessions made by Louis Gaufridi at Aix in 
March, 1611, were: ‘‘ I confess that baptism is administered 
at the Sabbat, and that every sorcerer, devoting himself to 
the Devil, binds himself by a particular vow that he will 
have all his children baptized at the Sabbat, if this may by 
any possible means be effected. Every child who is thus 
baptized at the Sabbat receives a name, wholly differing 
from his own name. I confess that at this baptism water, 


DEMONS AND FAMILIARS 85 


sulphur, and salt are employed: the sulphur renders the 
recipient the Devil’s slave whilst salt confirms his baptism 
in the Devil’s service. I confess that the form and intention 
are to baptize in the name of Lucifer, Belzebuth and other 
demons making the sign of the cross beginning backwards 
and then tracing from the feet and ending at the head.’’!® 

A number of Swedish witches (1669) were baptized : ‘‘ they 
added, that he caused them to be baptized too by such 
Priests as he had there, and made them confirm their Baptism 
with dreadful Oaths and Imprecations.’’!” 

The giving of a new name seems to have been very general. 
Thus in May, 1569, at S. Andrews “‘ a notabill sorceres callit 
Nicniven was condemnit to the death and burnt.” Her 
Christian name is not given merely her witch’s name bestowed 
by the demon. In the famous Fian case it was stated that 
when at the meeting in North Berwick kirk Robert Grierson 
was named great confusion ensued for the witches and war- 
locks “‘all ran hirdie-girdie, and were angry, for it was 
promised that he should be called Robert the Comptroller, 
for the expriming of his name.”!8 Euphemia McCalyan of 
the same coven was called Cane, and Barbara Napier Naip. 
Isabel Goudie of Auldearne (1662) stated that many witches 
known to her had been baptized in their own blood by such 
names as “ Able-and-Stout,” ‘* Over-the-dike-with-it,”’ 
‘* Raise-the-wind,” ‘‘ Pickle-nearest-the-wind,”’ ‘‘ Batter- 
them-down-Maggy,”’ “‘ Blow-Kate,”’ and similar japeries. 

Seventhly: The witches cut off a piece of their own 
garments, and as a token of homage tender it to the Devil, 
who takes it away and keeps it. 

Eighthly: The Devil draws on the ground a circle wherein 
stand the Novices, Wizards, and Witches, and there they 
confirm by oath all their aforesaid promises. This has a 
mystical signification. ‘* They take this oath to the Demon 
standing in a circle described upon the ground, perchance 
because a circle is the Symbol of Divinity, & the earth God’s 
footstool and thus he assuredly wishes them to believe that 
he is the lord of Heaven and earth.’’!® 

Ninthly: The sorcerers request the Devil to strike them 
out of the book of Christ, and to inscribe them in his own. 
Then is solemnly brought forward a large black book, the 
same as that on which they laid their hands when they did 


86 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


their first homage, and they are inscribed in this by the 
Devil’s claw. 

These books or rolls were kept with great secrecy by the 
chief officer of the coven or even the Grand Master of a 
district. They would have been guarded as something as 
precious as life itself, seeing that they contained the dam- 
ning evidence of a full list of the witches of a province or 
county, and in addition thereto seems to have been added a 
number of magic formule, spells, charms, and probably, 
from time to time, a record of the doings of the various 
witches. The signing of such a book is continually referred 
to in the New England trials. So when Deliverance Hobbs 
had made a clean breast of her sorceries, ‘‘ She now testifi’d, 
that this Bishop [Bridget Bishop, condemned and executed as 
a long-continued witch] tempted her to sign the Book again, 
and to deny what she had confess’d.”’ The enemies of the 
notorious Matthew Hopkins made great capital out of the 
story that by some sleight of sorcery he had got hold of one 
of these Devil’s memorandum-books, whence he copied a list 
of witches, and this it was that enabled him to be so infallible 
in his scent. The Witch-Finder General was hard put to it 
to defend himself from the accusation, and becomes quite 
pitiful in his whining asseverations of innocence. There is a 
somewhat vague story, no dates being given, that a Devil’s 
book was carried off by Mr. Williamson of Cardrona (Peebles), 
who filched it from the witches whilst they were dancing on 
Minchmoor. But the whole coven at once gave chase, and 
he was glad to abandon it and escape alive. | 

Sometimes the catalogue of witches was inscribed on a 
separate parchment, and the book only used to write down 
charms and spells. Such a volume was the Red Book of 
Appin known to have actually been in existence a hundred 
years ago. Tradition said it was stolen from the Devil by a 
trick. It was in manuscript, and contained a large number 
of magic runes and incantations for the cure of cattle diseases, 
the increase of flocks, the fertility of fields. This document, » 
which must be of immense importance and interest, when 
last heard of was (I believe) in the possession of the now- 
extinct Stewarts of Invernahyle. This strange volume, so 
the story ran, conferred dark powers on the owner, who knew 
what inquiry would be made ere the question was poised ; 


DEMONS AND FAMILIARS 87 


and the tome was so confected with occult arts that he who 
read it must wear a circlet of iron around his brow as he 
turned those mystic pages. 

Another volume, of which mention is made—one that is 
often confused?° with, but should be distinguished from, these 
two—is what we may term the Devil’s Missal. Probably 
this had its origin far back in the midst of the centuries among 
the earliest heretics who passed down their evil traditions to 
their followers, the Albigenses and the Waldenses or Vaudois. 
This is referred to by the erudite De Lancre, who in his 
detailed account of the Black Mass as performed in the region 
of the Basses-Pyrénées (1609) writes: ‘‘ Some kind of altar 
was erected upon the pillars of infernal design, and hereon, 
without reciting the Confiteor or Alleluya, turning over the 
leaves of a certain book which he held, he began to mumble 
certain phrases of Holy Mass.’’?! Silvain Nevillon (Orleans, 
1614) confessed that ‘‘ the Sabbat was held in a house. . . . 
He saw there a tall dark man opposite to the one who was in 
a corner of the ingle, and this man was perusing a book, 
whose leaves seemed black & crimson, & he kept muttering 
between his teeth although what he said could not be heard, 
and presently he elevated a black host and then a chalice of 
some cracked pewter, all foul and filthy.’’?? Gentien le Clerc, 
who was also accused, acknowledged that at these infernal 
assemblies ‘‘ Mass was said, and the Devil was celebrant. He 
was vested in a chasuble upon which was a broken cross. He 
turned his back to the altar when he was about to elevate 
the Host and the Chalice, which were both black. He read 
in a mumbling tone from a book, the cover of which was soft 
and hairy like a wolf’s skin. Some leaves were white and red, 
others black.’’?? Madeleine Bavent, who was the chief figure 
in the trials at Louviers (1647), acknowledged: ‘* Mass was 
read from the book of blasphemies, which contained the 
eanon. This same volume was used in processions. It was 
full of the most hideous curses against the Holy Trinity, the 
Holy Sacrament of the Altar, the other Sacraments and 
ceremonies of the Church. It was written in a language 
completely unknown to me.’24 Possibly this blasphemous 
‘volume is the same as that which Satanists to-day use when 
performing their abominable rites. 

Tenthly: The witches promise the Devil sacrifices and 


88 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


offerings at stated times; once a fortnight, or at least once 
a month, the murder of some child, or some mortal poisoning, 
and every week to plague mankind with evils and mischiefs, 
hailstorms, tempest, fires, cattle-plagues and the like. 

The Liber Penitentialis of S. Theodore, Archbishop of 
Canterbury 668-690, the earliest ecclesiastical law of Eng- 
land, has clauses condemning those who invoke fiends, and 
so cause the weather to change ‘‘si quis emissor tempestatis 
fuerit.’? In the Capitaluria of Charlemagne (died at Aachen, 
28 January, 814), the punishment of death is declared against 
those who by evoking the demon, trouble the atmosphere, 
excite tempests, destroy the fruits of the earth, dry up the 
milk of cows, and torment their fellow-creatures with diseases 
or any other misfortune. All persons found guilty of employ- 
ing such arts were to be executed immediately upon con- 
viction. Innocent VIII in his celebrated Bull, Summis de- 
siderantes affectibus, 5 December, 1484, charges sorcerers in 
detail with precisely the same foul practices. The most 
celebrated occasion when witches raised a storm was that 
which played so important a part in the trial of Dr. Fian 
and his coven, 1590-1, when the witches, in order to drown 
King James and Queen Anne on their voyage from Denmark, 
‘*tooke a Cat and christened it,’ and after they had bound 
a dismembered corpse to the animal “‘ in the night following 
the said Cat was convayed into the middest of the sea by all 
these witches, sayling in their riddles or cives, ... this 
doone, then did arise such a tempest in the sea, as a greater 
hath not bene seene.”?> The bewitching of cattle is alleged 
from the earliest time, and at Dornoch in Sutherland as late 
as 1722, an old hag was burned for having cast spells upon 
the pigs and sheep of her neighbours, the sentence being 
pronounced by the sheriff-depute, Captain David Ross of 
Little Dean. This was the last execution of a witch in 
Scotland. 

With regard to the sacrifice of children there is a catena 
of ample evidence. Reginald Scot?® writes in 1584: ‘‘ This 
must be an infallible rule, that euerie fortnight, or at the 
least euerie month, each witch must kill one child at the 
least for hir part.’? When it was dangerous or impossible. 
openly to murder an infant the life would be taken by poison, 
and in 1645 Mary Johnson, a witch of Wyvenhoe, Essex, was 


DEMONS AND FAMILIARS 89 


tried for poisoning two children, no doubt as an act of 
sorcery.?’ It is unknown how many children Gilles de Rais 
devoted to death in his impious orgies. More than two 
hundred corpses were found in the latrines of Tiffauges, 
Machecoul, Champtocé. It was in 1666 that Louis XIV 
was first informed of the abominations which were vermi- 
culating his capital “des sacriléges, des profanations, des 
messes impies, des sacrifices de jeunes enfants.”’ Night after 
night in the rue Beauregard at the house of the mysterious 
Catherine la Voisin the abbé Guibourg was wont to kill 
young children for his hideous ritual, either by strangulation 
or more often by piercing their throats with a sharp dagger 
and letting the hot blood stream into the chalice as he cried : 
** Astaroth, Asmodée, je vous conjure d’accepter le sacrifice 
que je vous présente!’’ (Astaroth! Asmodeus! Receive, 
I beseech you, this sacrifice I offer unto you!) A priest 
named Tournet also said Satanic Masses at which children 
were immolated; in fact the practice was so common that 
la Chaufrein, a mistress of Guibourg, would supply § a child 
for a crown?’ piece. 

Eleventhly : The Demon imprints upon the Witches some 
mark. . . . When this has all been performed in accordance 
with the instructions of those Masters who have initiated 
the Novice, the latter bind themselves by fearful oaths never 
to worship the Blessed Sacrament; to heap curses on all 
Saints and especially to abjure our Lady Immaculate; to 
trample under foot and spit upon all holy images, the Cross 
and Relics of Saints; never to use the Sacraments or Sacra- 
mentals unless with some magical end in view; never to 
make a good confession to the priest, but always to keep 
hidden their commerce with hell. In return the Demon 
promises that he will at all times afford them prompt assist- 
ance ; that he will accomplish all their desires in this world 
and make them eternally happy after their death. This 
solemn profession having been publicly made each novice 
has assigned to him a several demon who is called Magistellus 
(a familiar), This familiar can assume either a male or a 
female shape; sometimes he appears as a full-grown man, 
sometimes as a satyr; and if it is a woman who has been 
received as a witch he generally assumes the form of a rank 
buck-goat. 


90 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


It is obvious that there is no question here of animal 
familiars, but rather of evil intelligences who were, it is be- 
lieved, able to assume a body of flesh. The whole question 
is, perhaps, one of the most dark and difficult connected with 
Witchcraft and magic, and the details of these hideous con- 
nexions are such—for asthe Saints attain tothe purity of angels, 
so, on the other hand, will the bond slaves of Satan defile them- 
selves with every kind of lewdness—that many writers have 
with an undue diffidence and modesty dismissed the subject 
far too summarily for the satisfaction of the serious inquirer. 
In the first place, we may freely allow that many of these 
lubricities are to be ascribed to hysteria and hallucinations, 
to nightmare and the imaginings of disease, but when all 
deductions have been made—when we admit that in many 
cases the incubus or succubus can but have been a human 
being, some agent of the Grand Master of the district,—none 
the less enough remains from the records of the trials to 
convince an unprejudiced mind that there was a considerable 
substratum of fact in the confessions of the accused. As 
Canon Ribet has said in his encyclopedic La Mystique Divine, 
a work warmly approved by the great intellect of Leo XIIT: 
‘‘ After what we have learned from records and _ personal 
confessions we can scarcely entertain any more doubts, and 
it is our plain duty to oppose, even if it be but by a simple 
affirmation on our part, those numerous writers who, either 
through presumption or rashness, treat these horrors as idle 
talk or mere hallucination.’’2® Bizouard also in his authori- 
tative Rapports de Vhomme avec le démon writes of the incubus 
and succubus: ‘‘ These relations, far from being untrue, bear 
the strongest marks of authenticity which can be given them 
by official proceedings regulated and approved with all the 
caution and judgement brought to bear upon them by 
enlightened and conscientious magistrates who, throughout 
all ages, have been in a position to test plain facts.”%° 

It seems to me that if unshaken evidence means anything 
at all, if the authority of the ablest and acutest intellects 
of all ages in all countries is not to count for merest vapourings 
and fairy fantasies, the possibility—I do not, thank God, 
say the frequency—of these demoniacal connexions is not to 
be denied. Of course the mind already resolved that such 
things cannot be is inconvincible even by demonstration, and 


DEMONS AND FAMILIARS 91 


one can only fall back upon the sentence of S. Augustine: 
‘’ Hane assidue immunditiam et tentare et efficere, plures 
talesque asseuerant, ut hoc negare impudentie uideatur.’’*! 
In which place the holy doctor explicitly declares: ‘‘ Seeing 
it is so general a report, and so many aver it either from their 
own experience or from others, that are of indubitable 
honesty and credit, that the sylvans and fawns, commonly 
called incubi, have often injured women, desiring and acting 
carnally with them: and that certain devils whom the Gauls 
call Duses, do continually practise this uncleanness, and 
tempt others to it, which is affirmed by such persons, and 
with such confidence that it were impudence to deny it.” 

The learned William of Paris, confessor of Philip le Bel, 
lays down: ‘‘ That there exist such beings as are commonly 
called incubi or succubi and that they indulge their burning 
lusts, and that children, as it is freely acknowledged, can be 
born from them, is attested by the unimpeachable and 
unshaken witness of many men and women who have been 
filled with foul imaginings by them, and endured their 
lecherous assaults and lewdness.’’®? 

S. Thomas*? and 8S. Bonaventura,** also, speak quite 
plainly on the subject. 

Francisco Suarez, the famous Jesuit theologian, writes 
with caution but with directness: ‘‘ This is the teaching on 
this point of S. Thomas, who is generally followed by all other 
theologians. . . . The reason for their opinion is this: Such 
an action considered in its entirety by no means exceeds the 
natural powers of the demon, whilst the exercise of such 
powers is wholly in accordance with the malice of the demon, 
and it may well be permitted by God, owing to the sins 
of some men. Therefore this teaching cannot be denied 
without many reservations and exceptions. Wherefore 
S. Augustine has truly said, that inasmuch as this doctrine 
of incubi and succubi is established by the opinion of many 
who are experienced and learned, it were sheer impudence 
to deny it.”°> The Salmanticenses—that is to say, the authors 
of the courses of Scholastic philosophy and theology, and of 
Moral theology, published by the lecturers of the theological 
college of the Discaleed Carmelites at Salamanca—in their 
weighty Theologia Moralis** state: ‘‘Some deny this, 
believing it impossible that demons should perform the carnal 


92 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


act with human beings,”’ but they affirm, ‘‘ None the less the 
opposite opinion is most certain and must be followed.’’>’ 
Charles René Billuart, the celebrated Dominican, in his T'rac- 
tatus de Angelis expressly declares: ‘‘ The same evil spirit 
may serve as a succubus to a man, and as an incubus to a 
woman.’’?8 One of the most learned—if not the most learned 
—of the popes, Benedict XIV, in his erudite work De 
Seruorum Dei Beatificatione, treats this whole question at 
considerable length with amplest detail and solid references, 
Liber IV, Pars i. c. 3.89 Commenting upon the passage “‘ The 
sons of God went unto the daughters of men ”’ (Genesis vi. 4), 
the pontiff writes: ‘‘ This passage has reference to those 
Demons who are known as incubi and succubi. . . . It is true 
that whilst nearly all authors admit the fact, some writers 
deny that there can be offspring. . . . On the other hand, 
several writers assert that connexion of this kind is possible 
and that children may be born from it, nay, indeed, they 
tell us that this has taken place, although it were done in 
some new and mysterious way which is ordinarily unknown 
to man.’’?° 

S. Alphonsus Liguori in his Prawxis confessariorum, VII, 
n.111, writes: ‘‘ Some deny that there are evil spirits, incubi 
and succubi; but writers of authority for the most part 
assert that such is the case.’’™! 

In his Theologia Moralis he speaks quite precisely when 
defining the technical nature of the sin witches commit in com- 
merce with incubi.*? 4% This opinion is also that of Martino 
Bonacina,*! and of Vincenzo Filliucci, $.J.4° ‘‘ Busembaum 
has excellently observed that carnal sins with an evil spirit 
fall under the head of the technical term bestialitas.”’*® This 
is also the conclusion of Thomas Tamburini, S.J. (1591-1675) ; 
Benjamin Elbel, O.F.M. (1690-1756) ;47 Cardinal Cajetan, 
O.P. (1469-1534) “ the lamp of the Church ”’?; Juan Azor, S.J. 
(1535-1608); ‘‘in wisdom, in depth of learning and in 
gravity of judgement taking deservedly high rank among 
theologians ”’ (Gury); and many other authorities.48 What a 
penitent should say in confession is considered by Monsignor 
Craisson, sometime Rector of the Grand Seminary of Valence 
and Vicar-General of the diocese, in his Tractate De Rebus 
Uenereis ad usum Confessariorum.*® Jean-Baptiste Bouvier 
(1783-1854) the famous bishop of Le Mans, in his Dissertatio 


DEMONS AND FAMILIARS 93 


in Seatum Decalogi Preceptum®® (p. 78) writes: ‘“‘ All theo- 
logians speak of . . . evil spirits who appear in the shape 
of a man, a woman, or even some animal. This is either a 
real and actual presence, or the effect of imagination. They 
decide that this sin . . . incurs particular guilt which must 
be specifically confessed, to wit an evil superstition whereof 
the essence is a compact with the Devil. In this sin, therefore, 
we have two distinct kinds of malice, one an offence against 
chastity ; the other against our holy faith.’’®! Dom Dominic 
Schram, ®? O.S.B., in his Institutiones Theologie Mystice poses 
the following: ‘‘ The inquiry is made whether a demon... 
may thus attack a man or woman, whose obsession would 
be suffered if the subject were wholly bent upon obtaining 
perfection and walking the highest paths of contemplation. 
Here we must distinguish the true and the false. It is certain 
that—whatever doubters may say—there exist such demons, 
incubi and succubi: and S. Augustine asserts (The City of 
God, Book XV, chapter 23) that it is most rash to advance 
the contrary. . . . S. Thomas, and most other theologians 
maintain this too. Wherefore the men or women who suffer 
these impudicities are sinners who either invite demons .. . 
or who freely consent to demons when the evil spirits tempt 
them to commit such abominations. That these and other 
abandoned wretches may be violently assaulted by the demon 
we cannot doubt ...and I myself have known several 
persons who although they were greatly troubled on account 
of their crimes, and utterly loathed this foul intercourse with 
the demon, were nevertheless compelled sorely against their 
will to endure these assaults of Satan.’’°% 

It will be seen that great Saints and scholars and all moral 
theologians of importance affirm the possibility of commerce 
with incarnate evil intelligences. The demonologists also 
range themselves in a solid phalanx of assent. Hermann 
Thyraus, S.J.,54 in his De Spirituum apparitione says: “‘ It 
is so rash and inept to deny these (things) that so to adopt 
this attitude you must needs reject and spurn the most 
weighty and considered judgements of most holy and 
authoritative writers, nay, you must wage war upon man’s 
sense and consciousness, whilst at the same time you expose 
your ignorance of the power of the Devil and the empery 
evil spirits may obtain over man.’5> Delrio, in his Das- 


94 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


quisitiones Magice, is even more emphatic: “‘ So many sound 
authors and divines have upheld this belief that to differ 
from them is mere obstinacy and foolhardiness; for the 
Fathers, theologians, and all the wisest writers on philosophy 
agree upon this matter, the truth of which is furthermore 
proved by the experience of all ages and peoples.”°® The 
erudite Sprenger in the Malleus Maleficarum has much the 
same.®? John Nider, O.P. (1380-1488) in his Formicarius, 
which may be described as a treatise on the theological, 
philosophical, and social problems of his day, with no small 
acumen remarks: ‘‘ The reason why evil spirits appear as 
incubi and succubi would seem to be that . . . they inflict 
a double hurt on man, both in his soul and body, and it is 
a supreme joy to devils thus to injure humankind.’’®> Paul 
Grilland in his De Sortilegio (Lyons, 1538) writes: ‘* A demon 
assumes the form of the succubus. . . . This is the explicit 
teaching of the theologians.’’°® 

‘“It has often been known by most certain and actual 
experience that women in spite of their resistance have been 
overpowered by demons.”’ Such are the words of the famous 
Alfonso de Castro, O.F.M.,®° whose authoritative pronounce- 
ments upon Scripture carried such weight at the Council of 
Trent, and who was Archbishop-elect of Compostella when 
he died. Pierre Binsfeld, De confessione maleficarum, sums 
up: ‘* This is a most solemn and undoubted fact not only 
proved by actual experience, but also by the opinion of all 
the ages, whatever some few doctors and legal writers may 
suppose.’ ®1 

Gaspar Schott, S.J. (1608-66), physicist, doctor, and divine, 
‘* one of the most learned men of his day, his simple life and 
deep piety making him an object of veneration to the 
Protestants as well as to the Catholics of Augsburg,’’ where 
his declining years were spent, lays down: ‘“‘So many 
writers of such high authority maintain this opinion, that it 
were impossible to reject it.’’®* Bodin, de Lancre, Boguet, 
Gorres, Bizouard,*®* Gougenot des Mousseaux,®* insist upon 
the same sad facts. And above all sounds the solemn 
thunder of the Bull of Innocent VIII announcing in no 
ambiguous phrase: ‘‘ It has indeed come to our knowledge 
and deeply grieved are we to hear it, that many persons of 
both sexes, utterly forgetful of their souls’ salvation and 


DEMONS AND FAMILIARS 95 


straying far from the Catholic Faith, have (had commerce) 
with evil spirits, both incubi and succubi.’’®° 

I have quoted many and great names, men of science, men 
of learning, men of authority, men to whom the world yet 
looks up with admiration, nay, with reverence and love, 
inasmuch as to-day it is difficult, wellnigh inconceivable 
in most cases, for the modern mind to credit the possibility 
of these dark deeds of devilry, these foul lusts of incubi and 
succubi.®* ‘They seem to be some sick and loathly fantasy 
of dim medizval days shrieked out on the rack by a poor 
wretch crazed with agony and fear, and written down in 
long-forgotten tomes by fanatics credulous to childishness 
and more ignorant than savages. ‘‘ Even if such horrors 
ever could have taken place in the dark ages,’”—those vague 
Dark Ages!—men say, ‘‘ they would never be permitted 
now.” And he who knows, the priest sitting in the grated 
confessional, in whose ears are poured for shriving the filth 
and folly of the world, sighs to himself, ‘‘ Would God that in 
truth it were so!’”’ But the sceptics are happier in their 
singleness and their simplicity, happy that they do not, will 
not, realize the monstrous things that lie only just beneath 
the surface of our cracking civilization. 

It may not impertinently be inquired how demons or evil 
intelligences, since they are pure spiritual beings, can not 
only assume human flesh but perform the peculiarly carnal 
act of coition. Sinistrari, following the opinion of Guazzo, 
says that either the evil intelligence is able to animate the 
corpse of some human being, male or female, as the case may 
be, or that, from the mixture of other materials he shapes for 
himself a body endowed with motion, by means of which he 
is united to the human being: ‘‘ex mixtione aliarum 
materiarum effingit sibi corpus, quod mouet, et mediante 
quo homini unitur.’’*’ In the first instance, advantage might 
be taken, no doubt, of a person in a mediumistic trance or 
hypnotic sleep. But the second explanation seems by far 
the more probable. Can we not look to the phenomena 
observed in connexion with ectoplasm as an adequate 
explanation of this? It must fairly be admitted that this 
explanation is certainly borne out by the phenomena of the 
materializing séance where physical forms which may be 
touched and handled are built up and disintegrated again 


96 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


in a few moments of time. Miss Scatcherd, in a symposium, 
Survival,®* gives certain of her own experiences that go far 
to prove the partial re-materialization of the dead by the 
utilization of the material substance and ectoplasmic emana- 
tions of the living. And if disembodied spirits can upon 
occasion, however rare, thus materialize, why not evil 
intelligences whose efforts at corporeality are urged and aided 
by the longing thoughts and concentrated will power of those 
who eagerly seek them ? 

This explanation is further rendered the more probable by 
the recorded fact that the incubus can assume the shape of 
some person whose embraces the witch may desire.®® Brignoh, 
in his Alexicacon, relates that when he was at Bergamo 
in 1650, a young man, twenty-two years of age, sought him 
out and made a long and ample confession. This youth 
avowed that some months before, when he was in bed, the 
chamber door opened and a maiden, Teresa, whom he loved, 
stealthily entered the room. To his surprise she informed 
him that she had been driven from home and had taken 
refuge with him. Although he more than suspected some 
delusion, after a short while he consented to her solicitations 
and passed a night of unbounded indulgence in her arms. 
Before dawn, however, the visitant revealed the true nature 
of the deceit, and the young man realized he had lain with 
a succubus. None the less such was his doting folly that 
the same debauchery was repeated night after night, until 
struck with terror and remorse, he sought the priest to 
confess and be delivered from this abomination. ‘“‘ This 
monstrous connexion lasted several months; but at last 
God delivered him by my humble means, and he was truly 
penitent for his sins.’’7° 

Not infrequently the Devil or the familiar assigned to the 
new witch at the Sabbat when she was admitted must 
obviously have been a man, one of the assembly, who either 
approached her in some demoniacal disguise or else embraced 
her without any attempt at concealment of his individuality, 
some lusty varlet who would afterwards hold himself at her 
disposition. For we must always bear in mind that through- 
out these witch-trials there is often much in the evidence 
which may be explained by the agency of human beings ; 
not that this essentially meliorates their offences, for they 


DEMONS AND FAMILIARS 97 


were all bond-slaves of Satan, acting under his direction and 
by the inspiration of hell. When the fiend has ministers 
devoted to his service there is, perhaps, less need for his 
interposition in propria persona. Howbeit, again and again 
in these cases we meet with that uncanny quota, by no means 
insignificant and unimportant, which seemingly admits of 
no solution save by the materialization of evil intelligences 
of power. And detailed as is the evidence we possess, it not 
unseldom becomes a matter of great difficulty, when we are 
considering a particular case, to decide whether it be an 
instance of a witch having had actual commerce and com- 
munion with the fiend, or whether she was cheated by the 
devils, who mocked her, and allowing her to deem herself in 
overt union with them, thus led the wretch on to misery and 
death, duped as she was by the father of lies, sold for a 
delusion and by profitless endeavour in evil. There are, of 
course, also many cases which stand on the border-line, half 
hallucination, half reality. Sylvine de la Plaine, a witch of 
twenty-three, who was condemned by the Parliament of 
Paris, 17 May, 1616, was one of these.7! Antoinette Brenichon, 
a married woman, aged thirty, made a confession in almost 
exactly the same words. Sylvine, her husband Barthélemi 
Minguet, and Brenichon were hanged and their bodies 
burned. 

Henri Boguet, a Judge of the High Court of Burgundy, 
in his Discours des Sorciers, devotes chapter xii to ‘‘ The 
carnal connexion of the Demons with Witches and Sorcerers.”’ 
He discusses: 1. The Devil knows all the Witches, & why. 
2. He takes a female shape to pleasure the Sorcerers, & why. 
3. Other reasons why the Devil (has to do) with warlocks 
and witches.’ Francoise Secretain, Clauda Ianprost, 
Iaquema Paget, Antoine Tornier, Antoine Gandillon, Clauda 
Ianguillaume, Thieuenne Paget, Rolande du Vernois, Ianne 
Platet, Clauda Paget, and a number of other witches con- 
fessed “‘ their dealings with the Devil.”7? Pierre Gandillon 
and his son George also confessed to commerce with the 
Demon. Under his third division Boguet lays down explicit 
statements on the matter.?4 75 

This unnatural physical coldness of the Demon is com- 
mented upon again and again by witches at their trials in 
every country of Europe throughout the centuries. I have 

H 


98 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


already suggested that in some cases there was a full 
materialization due to ectoplasmic emanations. Now, 
ectoplasm is described?® as being to the touch a cold and 
viscous mass comparable to contact with a reptile, and this 
certainly seems to throw a flood of light upon these details. 
It may be that here indeed we have a solution of the whole 
mystery. In 1645 the widow Bash, a Suffolk witch, of Barton, 
said that the Devil who appeared to her as a dark swarthy 
youth ‘was colder than man.”’’?7 Isobel Goudie and Janet 
Breadheid, of the Auldearne coven, 1662, both asserted that 
the Devil was “‘a meikle, blak, rock man, werie cold; and 
I fand his nature als cold, a spring-well-water.”’* Isabel, 
who had been rebaptized at a Sabbat held one midnight in 
Auldearne parish church, and to whom was assigned a 
familiar named the Red Riever, albeit he was always clad 
in black, gave further details of the Devil’s person: “ He is 
abler for ws that way than any man can be, onlie he ves 
heavie lyk a malt-sek; a hudg nature, uerie cold, as yee.’”’”? 
In many of the cases of debauchery at Sabbats so freely 
and fully confessed by the witches their partners were 
undoubtedly the males who were present ; the Grand Master, 
Officer, or President of the Assembly, exercising the right to 
select first for his own pleasures such women as he chose. 
This is clear from a passage in De Lancre: “‘ The Devil at 
the Sabbat performs marriages between the warlocks and 
witches, and joining their hands, he pronounces aloud 


Esta es buena parati 
Esta parati lo toma.’’®° 


And in many cases it is obvious that use must have been 
made of an instrument, an artificial phallus employed.* 

The artificial penis was a commonplace among the erotica 
of ancient civilizations; there is abundant evidence of its 
use in Egypt, Assyria, India, Mexico, all over the world. 
It has been found in tombs; frequently was it to be seen as 
an ex-voto ; in a slightly modified form it is yet the favourite 
mascot of Southern Italy.82 Often enough they do not 
trouble to disguise the form. Aristophanes mentions the 
object in his Lysistrata (411 B.c.), and one of the most spirited 
dialogues (VI) of Herodas (circa 300-250 B.c.) is that where 
Koritto and Metro prattle prettily of their BavSwv, whilst 


DEMONS AND FAMILIARS 99 


(in another mime, VII) the ladies visit Kerdon the leather- 
worker who has fashioned this masterpiece. Truly Herodas 
is as modern to-day in London or in Paris as he ever was 
those centuries ago in the isle of Cos. Fascinum, explains 
the Glossarium Eroticum Lingue Latine,® ‘ Penis fictitius 
ex corio, aut pannis lineis uel sericis, quibus mulieres uirum 
mentiebantur. Antiquissima libido, lesbiis et milesiis feminis 
presertim usitatissima. JF ascinis illis abutebantur mere- 
trices in tardos ascensores.”’ As one might expect Petronius 
has something to say on the subject in a famous passage 
where that savage old hag** (nothea fairly frightened 
Encolpius with her scortewm fascinum, upon which an erudite 
Spanish scholar, Don Antonio Gonzalez de Salas, glosses : 
“ Rubrum penem coriaceum ut Suidas exsertim tradit uoce 
padror. Confecti & ex uaria materia uarios in usus olim 
phalli ex ligno, ficu potissimum qui ficulnei seepius adpellati, 
ex ebore, ex auro, ex serico, & ex lineo panno, quibus Lesbize 
tribades abutebantur.’’®> And Tibullus, speaking of the 
image of Priapus, has :8¢ 


Placet Priape ? qui sub arboris coma 
Soles sacrum reuincte pampino caput 
Ruber sedere cum rubente fascino. 


The Church, of course, condemned with unhesitating voice 
all such practices, whether they were connected (in however 
slight a degree) with Witchcraft or not. Arnobius, who 
regards all such offences as detestable, in his Aduersus 
Nationes, V (circa A.D. 296), relates a curiously obscene 
anecdote which seems to point to the use of the fascinum by 
the Galli, the priests of Berecynthian Cybele,®? whose orgies 
were closely akin to those of Dionysus. And the same story 
is related by Clement of Alexandria Lporpertixds pos 
"EXAnvas (circa A.D. 190); by Julius Firmicus Maternus, 
De Errore profanarum Religionum (A.D. 887-850) ; by Nicetas 
(0b. circa A.D. 414) in a commentary on S. Gregory of Nan- 
zianzus, oratio XX XIX; and by Theodoret (ob. circa A.D. 457) 
Sermo octaua de Martyribus. Obviously some very primitive 
rite is in question. 

Lactantius, in his De Falsa Religione (Diuinarwm Institu- 
tconum, I, circa A.D. 804), speaks of a phallic superstition, 
akin to the fascinum, as favoured by the vestals, and implies 


100 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


it was notoriously current in his day." That eminent father, 
S. Augustine, De Ciuitate Dei, VII, 21, gives some account 
of the fascinum as used in the rites of Bacchus, and when 
he is detailing the marriage ceremonies (VI, 9), he writes : 
‘* Sed quid hoc dicam, cum tibi sit et Priapus nimius masculus, 
super cuius immanissimum et turpissimum fascinum sedere 
nona nupta iubeatur, more honestissimo et religiosissimo 
matronarum.” The historian, Evagrius Scholasticus (0b. 
post A.D. 504), in his Historia Ecclesiastica (XI, 2), says that 
the ritual of Priapus was quite open in his day, and the 
fascinum widely known. Nicephorus Calixtus, a_ later 
Byzantine, who died about the middle of the fourteenth 
century but whose Chronicle closed with the death of Leo 
Philosophus, A.D. 911, speaks of phallic ceremonies and of the 
use of ithy-phalli.*® 

Council after council forbade the use of the fascinum, and 
their very insistence of prohibition show how deeply these 
abominations had taken root. The Second Council of 
Chalon-sur-Sadne (818) is quite plain and unequivocal; so 
are the synods of de Mano (1247) and Tours (1896). Burchard 
of Worms (died 25 Aug., 1025) in his famous Decretum has : 
‘“‘ Fecisti quod quedam mulieres facere solent, ut facere 
quoddam molimen aut mechinamentum in modum uirilis 
membri, ad mensuram tue uoluptatis, et illud loco ueren- 
dorum tuorum, aut alterius, cum aliquibus ligaturis colligares, 
et fornicationem faceres cum aliis mulierculis, uel aliz eodem 
instrumento, siue alio,tecum? Si fecisti, quinque annos per | 
legitimas ferias poeniteas.”” And again: “ Fecisti quod 
queedam mulieres facere solent, ut iam supra dicto molimine 
uel alio aliquo machinamento, tu ipsa in te solam faceres 
fornicationem ? Si fecisti, unum annum per legitimas ferias 
poeniteas.”’ | 

Other old Penitentials have: ‘‘ Mulier qualicumque molli- 
mine aut per seipsum aut cum altera fornicans, tres annos 
poeniteat ; unum ex his in pane et aqua.” 

‘* Cum sanctimoniali per machinam fornicans annos septem 
poeniteat ; duos ex his in pane et aqua.” 

‘‘Mulia qualicumque molimineautseipsam polluens, aut cum 
altera fornicans, quatuor annos. Sanctimonialis femina cum 
sanctimoniali per machinamentum polluta, septem annos.”’ 

It is demonstrable, then, that artificial methods of coition, 


DEMONS AND FAMILIARS 101 


common in pagan antiquity, have been unblushingly prac- 
tised throughout all the ages, as indeed they are at the present 
day, and that they have been repeatedly banned and 
reprobated by the voice of the Church. This very fact would 
recommend them to the favour of the Satanists, and there 
can be no doubt that amid the dark debaucheries which 
celebrated the Sabbats such practice was wellnigh universal. 
Yet when we sift the evidence, detailed and exact, of the 
trials, we find there foul and hideous mysteries of lust which 
neither human intercourse nor the employ of a mechanical 
property can explain. Howbeit, the theologians and the 
inquisitors are fully aware what unspeakable horror lurks in 
the blackness beyond. 

The animal familiar was quite distinct from the familiar 
in human shape. In England particularly there is abundance 
of evidence concerning them, and even to-day who pictures 
a witch with nut-cracker jaws, steeple hat, red cloak, hobbling 
along on her crutch, without her big black cat beside her ? 
It is worth remark that in other countries the domestic 
animal familiar is rare, and Bishop Francis Hutchinson even 
says: ‘‘I meet with little mention of Imps in any Country 
but ours, where the Law makes the feeding, suckling, or 
rewarding of them to be Felony.’’®? Curiously enough this 
familiar is most frequently met with in Essex, Suffolk, and 
the Eastern counties. We find that animals of all kinds were 
regarded as familiars; dogs, cats, ferrets, weasels, toads, 
rats, mice, birds, hedgehogs, hares, even wasps, moths, bees, 
and flies. It is piteous to think that in many cases some 
miserable creature who, shunned and detested by her fellows, 
has sought friendship in the love of a cat or a dog, whom she 
has fondled and lovingly fed with the best tit-bits she could 
give, on the strength of this affection alone was dragged to 
the gallows or the stake. But very frequently the witch did 
actually keep some small animal which she nourished on a 
diet of milk and bread and her own blood in order that she 
might divine by its means. The details of this particular 
method of augury are by no means clear. Probably the 
witch observed the gait of the animals, its action, the tones 
of its voice easily interpreted to bear some fanciful meaning, 
and no doubt a dog, or such a bird as a raven, a daw, could 
be taught tricks to impress the simplicity of inquirers. 


102 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


The exceeding importance of blood in life has doubtless 
been evident to man from the earliest times. Man experienced 
a feeling of weakness after the loss of blood, therefore blood 
was strength, life itself, and throughout the ages blood has 
been considered to be of the greatest therapeutic, and the 
profoundest magical, value. The few drops of blood the 
witch gave her familiar were not only a reward, a renewal 
of strength, but also they established a closer connexion 
between herself and the dog, cat, or bird as the case might 
be. Blood formed a psychic copula. 

At the trial of Elizabeth Francis, Chelmsford, 1556, the 
accused confessed that her familiar, given to her by her 
grandmother, a notorious witch, was “in the lykenesse of a 
whyte spotted Catte,”’ and her grandmother “taughte her to 
feede the sayde Catte with breade and mylke, and she did 
so, also she taughte her to cal it by the name of Sattan and 
to kepe it in a basket. Item that euery tyme that he did 
any thynge for her, she sayde that he required a drop of 
bloude, which she gaue him by prycking herselfe, sometime 
in one place and then in another.’’®® It is superfluous to 
multiply instances ; in the witch-trials of Essex, particularly 
whilst Matthew Hopkins and his satellite John Stearne were 
hot at work from 1645 to 1647 the animal familiar is men- 
tioned again and again in the records. As late as 1694 at 
Bury St. Edmunds, when old Mother Munnings of Hartis, 
in Suffolk, was haled before Lord Chief Justice Holt, it was 
asserted that she had an imp like a polecat. But the judge 
pooh-poohed the evidence of a pack of clodpate rustics and 
directed the jury to bring a verdict of Not Guilty.°! ‘* Upon 
particular Enquiry,” says Hutchinson, “of several in or 
near the Town, I find most are satisfied it was a very right 
Judgement.” In 1712 the familiar of Jane Wenham, the 
witch of Walkerne, in Hertfordshire, was, at her trial, stated 
to be a cat. 

In Ford and Dekker’s The Witch of Edmonton the familiar 
appears upon the stage as a dog. This, of course, is directly 
taken from Henry Goodcole’s pamphlet The Wonderfull 
Discouerie of Elizabeth Sawyer (London, 4to, 1621), where in 
answer to this question the witch confesses that the Devil 
came to her in the shape of a dog, and of two colours, some- 
times of black and sometimes of white. Some children had 


DEMONS AND FAMILIARS 103 


informed the Court that they had seen her feeding imps, 
two white ferrets, with white bread and milk, but this she 
steadfastly denied. In Goethe’s Faust, Part I, Scene 2, 
Mephistopheles first appears to Faust outside the city gates 
as a black poodle and accompanies him back to his study, 
snarling and yelping when In Principio is read. This is 
part of the old legend. Manlius (1590), in the report of his 
conversation with Melanchthon, quotes the latter as having 
said: ‘‘He [Faust] had a dog with him, which was the 
devil.” Paolo Jovio relates®? that the famous Cornelius 
Agrippa always kept a demon attendant upon him in the 
shape of a black dog. But John Weye, in his well-known 
work De Prestigiis Demonum,* informs us that he had 
lived for years in daily attendance upon Agrippa and that 
the black dog, Monsieur, respecting which such strange 
stories were spread was a perfectly innocent animal which 
he had often led about himself in its leash. Agrippa was 
much attached to his dog, which used to eat off the table 
with him and of nights lie in his bed. Since he was a profound 
scholar and a great recluse he never troubled to contradict 
the idle gossip his neighbours clacked at window and door. 
It is hardly surprising when one considers the hermetic 
works which go under Agrippa’s name that even in his life- 
time this great man should have acquired the reputation 
of a mighty magician. 

Grotesque names were generally given to the familiar : 
Lizabet; Verd-Joli; Maitre Persil (parsley); Verdelet ; 
Martinet; Abrahel (a succubus); and to animal familiars 
in England, Tissy ; Grissell ; Greedigut ; Blackman ; Jezebel 
(a succubus); Ilemanzar; Jarmara; Pyewackett. 

The familiar in human shape often companied with the witch 
and was visible to clairvoyants. Thus in 1824 one of the 
accusations brought against Lady Alice Kyteler was that 
a demon came to her ‘“‘quandoque in specie cuiusdam 
eethiopis cum duobus sociis.”” The society met with at 
Sabbats is not so easily shaken off as might be wished. 


NOTES TO CHAPTER III. 


1 Two local Milanese Orders, the Apostolini of 8. Barnabas and the Congre- 
gation of S. Ambrose ad Nemus, were united by a Brief of Sixtus V, 15 August, 
1589. 11 January, 1606, Paul V approved the new Constitutions. The 
Congregation retaining very few members was dissolved by Innocent X in 
1650, The habit was a tunic, broad scapular, and capuche of chestnut brown, 


104 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


They were calced, and in the streets a wide cloak of the same colour as the 
habit. 

2 BH. Goldsmid, Confessions of Witches under Torture, Edinburgh, 1886. 

3... renoncer & renier son Createur, la saincte Vierge, les Saincts, le 
Baptesme, pere, mere, parens, le ciel, la terre & tout ce qui est au monde. 
Tableau de V Inconstance des mauvais Anges, Paris, 1613. 

4 Je, Louis Gaufridi, renonce & tous les biens tant spirituels que temporels 
qui me pouvraient étre conferés de la part de Dieu, de la Vierge Marie, de 
tous les Saints et Saintes du Paradis, particuliérement de mon patron Saint 
Jean-Baptiste, Saints Pierre, Paul, et Frangois, et me donne corps et 4me a 
vous Lucifer ici présent, avec tous les biens que je posséderai jamais (excepté 
la valeur des sacrements pour le regard de ceux qui les recurent). Ainsi j’ai 
signé et attesté. Confession faicte par messire Loys Gaufridi, prestre enV église 
des Accoules de Marseille, prince des magiciens . . a deux péres capucins du 
couvent d’ Aix, la veille de Pasques le onziéme avril mil six cent onze. A Aix, 
par Jean Tholozan, MVCXI. 

5 Je renonce entiérement de tout mon coeur, de toute'ma force, et de toute 
ma puissance a Dieu le Pére, au Fils et au Saint-Esprit, 4 la trés Sainte Mére 
de Dieu, a tous les anges et spécialement & mon bon ange, a la passion de 
Notre Seigneur Jésus Christ, & Son Sang, a tous les mérites d’icelle, 4 ma part 
de Paradis, & toutes les inspirations que Dieu me pourrait donner & l'avenir, 
& toutes les priéres qu’on a faites et pourrait faire pour moi. 

6 §. Pius V, Bull Consueuerunt, 17 September, 1569: Bl. Francisco de 
Possadas, Vida di Santo Domingo, Madrid, 1721. 

7 In England at this date it was felony to possess an Agnus Dei. 

8 Spyondent quod... ad conuentus nocturnos diligenter accedent. 

® Coven, coeven, covine, curving, covey, are among the many spellings of 
this word. 

10 R, Pitcairn, Criminal Trials, Edinburgh, 1833. 

11 Hxramination of Certain Witches, Philobiblion Society, London, 1863-4. 

12 Thomas Potts, Discoverie of Witches. 

13... qu’elle a veu souuent baptiser des enfans au sabbat, qu’elle nous 
expliqua estre des enfans des sorcieres & non autres, lesquelles ont ac- 
coutumé faire plustost baptiser leurs enfans au sabbat qu’en l’église. Pierre 
de Lancre, Tableau de l’ Inconstance des mauvais Anges, Paris, 1613. 

14 |. . qu’on baptise des enfans au Sabbat auec du Cresme, que des femmes 
apportent, & frottent la verge de quelque homme, & en font sortir de la 
semence qu’elles amassent, and la meslent auec le Cresme, puis mettant cela 
sur la teste de l’enfant en pronongant quelques paroles en Latin. Contem- 
porary tract, Arrest & procedure faicte par le Lieutenant Criminel d’Orleans 
contre Siluain Neuillon. 

15. . . dit que sa mére le presenta (dit-on) en laage de trois ans au Sabbat, 
& vn bouc, qu’on appelloit ’ Aspic. Dit qu’il fut baptisé au Sabbat, au Carrior 
d’Oliuet, auec quatorze ou quinze autres, & que Jeanne Geraut porta du 
Chresme qui estoit jaune dans vn pot, & que ledit Neuillon ietta de la 
semence dans ledit pot, & vn nommé Semelle, & brouilloient cela auec vne 
petite cuilliere de bois, & puis leur en mirent a tous sur la teste. 

16 J’advoue comme on baptise au Sabath et comme chacun sorcier fait 
vou particulicrement se donnant au diable et faire baptiser tous ses enfants 
au Sabath (si faire se peut). Comme aussi l’on impose des noms 4 chacun de 
ceux qui sont au Sabath, différents de leur propre nom. J’advoue comme au 
baptéme on se sert de l’eau, du soufre et du sel: le soufre rend esclave le 
diable et le sel pour confirmer le baptéme au service du diable. J’advoue 
comme la forme et l’intention est de baptiser au nom de Lucifer, de Belzebuth 
et autres diables faisant le signe de la croix en le commengant par le travers 
et puis le poursuivant par les pieds et finissant 4 la téte. Contemporary tract, 
Confession faicte par messire Loys Gaufridi, prestre en Véglise des Accoules de 
Marseille, prince des magiciens, MVCXI. 

17 Anthony Hornech’s appendix to Glanvill’s Sadducismus Triumphatus, 
London, 1681. 

18 Newes from Scotland, London, W. Wright, 1592. 


DEMONS AND FAMILIARS 105 


19 Prestant Demoni. . . iuramentum super circulo in terram sculpto 
fortasse quia cum circulus sit Symbolum Divinitatis, & terra scabellum Dei 
sic certe uellet eos credere se esse Dominum ceeli & terre. Guazzo, Compen- 
dium, I. 7, p. 38. I have corrected the text, which runs ‘“‘uellet eos credere 
eum esset .. .” 

20 Even by so industrious a searcher as Miss M. A. Murray. 

21 Dressant quelque forme d’autel sur des colofies infernales, & sur iceluy 
sans dire le Confiteor, ny |’ Alleluya, tournant les feuillets d’vn certain liure 
qu’il a en main, il commence 4 marmoter quelques mots de la Messe. De 
Lancre, Tableau, p. 401. 

22, . . que le Sabbat se tenoit dans vne maison ... Vit aussi vn grand 
homme noir a l’opposite de celuy de la cheminée, qui regardoit dans vn liure, 
dont les feuillets estoient noirs & bleuds, & marmotait entre ses dents 
sans entendre ce qu’il disoit, leuoit vne hostie noire, puis vn calice de meschant 
estain tout crasseux. 

23 On dit la Messe, & que c’est le Diable qui la dit, qu’il a vne Chasuble qui 
@ vne croix: mais qu’elle n’a que trois barres: & tourne le dos a4 l’Autel 
quand il veut leuer l’Hostie & le Calice, qui sont noirs, & marmote dans vn 
liure, duquel le couuerture est toute velue comme d’vne peau de loup, auec 
des feuillets blancs & rouges, d’autres noirs. 

24 On lisait la messe dans le livre des blasphémes, qui servait de canon et 
qu’on employait aussi dans les processions. Il renfermait les plus horribles 
malédictions contre la sainte Trinité, le Saint Sacrement de l’autel, les autres 
sacrements et les cérémonies de |’Eglise, et il était écrit dans une langue qui 
m’était inconnue. Gdérres, La Mystique Divine, trad., Charles Sainte-Foi, V. 
p. 230. There is a critical recension of Die christliche Mystik by Boretius 
and Krause, Hanover, 1893-7. 

25 Newes from Scotland, London, W. Wright (1592). 

*6 Book III. p. 42. 

27 T, B. Howell, State Trials, London, 1816. IV, 844, 846. 

28 §. Caleb, Les Messes Noires, Paris, 8.d, 

29 Aprés ce que nous ont appris les livres et les Ames, il ne nous est pas 
permis de douter, et notre devoir est de combattre, ne fit-ce que par un simple 
affirmation, les nombreux auteurs qui, effrontément ou témérairement, 
traitent ces horreurs de fables ou d’hallucinations. La Mystique Divine, 
nouvelle édition, Paris, 1902. III, pp. 269, 270. 

30 Ces histoires, loin d’étre fabuleuses, ont toute l’authenticité que peut 
leur donner une procédure instruite avec tout le zéle et le talent que pouvaient 
y apporter des magistrats éclairés et consciencieux, auxquels, 4 toutes les 
époques, les faits ne manquaient pas. Libre III.c. 8. 

81 De Ciuitate Dei, xv. 23. I quote Healey’s translation, 1610. 

32 Esse eorum (qui usualiter incubi uel succubi nominantur) et concupis- 
centiam eorum libidinosam, necnon et generationem ab eis esse famosam atque 
credibilem fecerunt testimonia uirorum et mulierem qui illusiones ipsorum, 
molestiasque et improbitates, necnon et uiolentias libidinis ipsorum, se passos 
fuisse testificatisunt et adhuc asserunt. De Universitate, Secunda Pars, III. 25. 

88 $i tamen ex coitu demonum aliqui interdum nascuntur, hoc non est per 
semen ab eis decisum, aut a corporibus assumptis; sed per semen alicuius 
hominis ad hoc acceptum, utpote quod idem demon qui est succubus ad 
uirum, fiat incubus ad mulierem. Summa, Pars Prima, questio 1, a 3. at 6. 

84 Succumbunt uiris in specie mulieris, et ex eis semen pollutionis susci- 
piunt, et quadam sagacitate ipsum in sua uirtute custodiunt, et postmodum, 
Deo permittente, fiunt incubi et in uasa mulierum transfundunt. Sententi- 
arum, Liber IT, d. viii, Pars Prima, a 3. q. 1. 

35 Docet S. Thomas... et consentiunt communiter reliqui theologi. .. . 
Ratio huius sententiz est quia tota illa actio non excedit potestatem natur- 
alem dzemonis, usus autem talis potestatis est ualde conformis praueze uolun- 
tati demonis, et iuste a Deo permitti potest propter aliquorum hominum 
peccata. Ergo non potest cum fundamento negari, et ideo non immerito dixit 
Augustinus, cum de illo usu multis experientiis et testimoniis constet, non 
sine impudentia negari. De Angelis, l.iv.c.38.nn.10,11. / 


106 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


86 Begun in 1665 by Fra Francisco de Jésus-Maria (0b. 1677). 

37 Negant aliqui, credentes impossible esse quod deemones actum carnalem 
cum hominibus exercere ualent. Sed tenenda est ut omnino certa contraria 
sententia. Theologia moralis, Tr. xxi. c. 11. p. 10. nn. 180, 181. 

38 Tdem demon qui est succubus ad uirum potest fieri incubus ad mulierem. 
In his monumental Summa S. Thome hodiernis Academiarum moribus accom- 
data, 19 vols. Liege, 1746-51. 

89 De Seruonem Dei Beatificatione, Rome, MDCCXC, Cura Aloysii Salvioni. 
Tom. VII. pp. 30-33. 

40 Que leguntur de Demonibus incubis et succubis. . . . Quamuis enim 
predicti concubitus communiter admittantur, sed generatis a nonnullis ex- 
cludetur ... alii, tamen, tum concubitum, tum generationem fieri posse, et 
factam fuisse existimauerunt, modo quodam nouo et inusitate, et hominibus 
incognito. Sancho de Avila, bishop of Murcia, Jaen, and Siguenza, S. Teresa’s 
confessor (0b. December, 1625), in a commentary on Exodus discusses the 
curious question: An Angeli de se generare possint ? 

41 Quidam hos demones incubos uel succubos dari negarunt; sed com- 
muniter id affirmant auctores. 

42 Ad bestialitatem autem reuocatur peccatum cum dzmone succubo, 
uel incubo ; cui peccato superadditur malitia contra religionem ; et preterea 
etiam sodomiz, adulterii, uel incestus, si affectu uiri, uel mulieris, sodomitico, 
adulterino uelincestuoso cum dzemone coeat. Lib. III, Tract iv.c. 2. Dubium 3. 

43 The word bestialitas has theologically a far wider signification than the 
word bestiality. In 1222 a deacon, having been tried before Archbishop 
Langton, was burned at Oxford on a charge of bestiality. He had embraced 
Judaism in order to marry a Jewess. Professor E. P. Evans remarks: “ It 
seems rather odd that the Christian lawgivers should have adopted the Jewish 
code against sexual intercourse with beasts, and then enlarged it so as to 
include the Jews themselves. The question was gravely discussed by jurists 
whether cohabitation of a Christian with a Jewess, or vice versa, constitutes 
sodomy. Damhouder (Praz. rer. crim. c. 96 n. 48) is of the opinion that it 
does, and Nicolaus Boer (Decis., 136, n. 5) cites the case of a certain Johannes 
Alardus, or Jean Alard, who kept a Jewess in his house in Paris and had 
several children by her: he was convicted of sodomy on account of this rela- 
tion and burned, together with his paramour, ‘ since coition with a Jewess is 
precisely the same as if a man should copulate with a dog’ (Dopl. Theat. ii, 
p. 157). Damhouder includes Turks and Saracens in the same category.” 
The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals, p. 152. London, 
1906. 

44 An oblate of S. Charles, d. 1631. 

45 1566-1622. His Synopsis Theologie Moralis is a posthumous work, 
published 1626. 

46 Bene ait Busembaum quod congressus cum dzemone reducitur ad pecca- 
tum bestialitatis. Hermann Busembaum, 8.J., 1600-1668. 

47 Theologia moralis decalogalis et sacramentalis. Venice, 1731. 

48 Preter autem crimen bestialitatis accedit scelus superstitionis. An 
autem, qui coit cum dzemone apparente in forma conjugate, monialis, aut 
consanguiniz, peccet semper affective peccato adulterii, sacrilegil, aut in- 
cestus ? Uidetur uniuerse affirmare Busembaum cum aliis ut supra. 

49 Paris, 1883. 

50 A private manual only delivered to priests. 

51 Omnes theologi loguuntur de congressu cum dzemone in forma uiri, 
mulieris aut alicuius bestiz apparente, uel ut presente per imaginationem 
representato, dicuntque tale peccatum ad genus bestialitatis reuocandum 
esse, et specialem habere malitiam in confessione declarandam, scilicet super- 
stitionem in pacto cum dzemone consistentem. In hoc igitur scelere duz 
necessario reperiuntur malitiz, una contra castitatem, et altera contra uir- 
tutem religionis. Si quis ad demonem sub specie uiri apparentem affectu 
sodomitico accedat, tertia est species peccati, ut patet. Item si sub specie 
consanguinee aut mulieris conjugate fingatur apparere, adest species incestus 
uel adulterii; si sub specie bestiz, adest bestialitas, 


DEMONS AND FAMILIARS 107 


52. 1722-1797. He was a monk of Bans, near Bamberg. 

53 Queri potest utrum demon per turpem concubitum possit uiolenter 
opprimere marem uel feminam cuius obsessio permissa sit ob finem perfec- 
tionis et contemplationis acquirende. Ut autem uera a falsis separemus, 
sciendum est quod dzemones (incubi et succubi, quidquid dicant incredul1) 
uere dantur: immo hoc iuxta doctrinam Augustini (lib. 15, de Ciwit. Dez, 
cap. 23)sine aliqua impudentia negari nequit:... Hocidem asserit D. Thomas, 
aliique communiter. Hic uero, qui talia patiuntur, sunt pececatores qui uel 
demones ad hos nefandos concubitus inuitant, uel demonibus turpia hee 
facinora intentantibus ultro assentiuntur. Quod autem hi aliique praui 
homines possint per uiolentiam a demone oppriminon dubitamus: .. . et 
ego ipse plures inueni qui quamuis de admissis sceleribus dolerent; et hoc 
nefarium diaboli commercium exsecrarentur, tamen illud pati cogebantur 
inuiti. D. Schram, Theologia Mystica, I. 233, scholium 3, p.408. Paris, 1848. 

54 1532-1591. Provincial of the Jesuit province of the Rhine. 

55 Congressus hos demonum cum utriusque sexus hominibus negare, ita 
temerarium est, ut necessarium sit simul conuellas et sanctissimorum et 
grauissimorum hominum grauissimas sententias, et humanis sensibus bellum 
indicas, et te ignorare fatearis quanta sit illorum spirituum in hec corpora uis 
utque potestas. C.x.n. 3. 

°6 Placuit enim affirmatio axiomatis adeo multis, ut uerendum sit ne per- 
tinacie et audacie sit ab eis discedere; communis namque hec est sententia 
Patrum, theologorum et philosophorum doctiorum, et omnium fere seculorum 
atque nationum experientia comprobata. Liber IT, questio 15. 

57 Asserere per incubos et succubos demones homines interdum procreari 
in tantum est catholicum, quod eius oppositum asserere est nedum dictis 
Sanctorum, sed et traditioni sacre Scripture contrarium. Pars prima, 
questio 3. 

58 Causa autem quare dzemones se incubos faciunt uel succubos esse 
uidetur, ut per luxurie uitium hominis utramque naturam ledant, corporis 
uidelicet et anime, qua in lesione precipue delectari uidentur. This divine 
was a prominent figure at the Council of Bale. I have used the Douai edition, 
5 vols. 1602. 

59 Dzmon in forma succubi se transformat, et habet coitum cum uiro...; 
accedit ad mulierem in forma scilicet uiri.... Ita firmant communiter Theo- 
logi. 

60 Certissima experientia sepe cognitum est fcoeminas etiam inuitas a 
demonibus fuisse compressas. De justa hereticorum punitione, Lib. I. 
ce. xvili. Salamanca, 1547. 

61 Hec est indubitata ueritas quam non solum experientia certissima com- 
probat, sed etiam antiquitas confirmat, quidquid quidam medici et iurisperiti 
opinentur. Conclusio quinta. 

62 Affirmatiuam sententiam tam multi et graues tuentur auctores, ut sine 
pertinaciz nota ab illa discedi non posse uidatur. 

68 Rapports de V-homme avec le démon. 

84 Les hauts phenoménes de la magic. 

85 Sane ad nostrum, non sine ingenti molestia, peruenit auditum quod... 
complures utriusque sexus persone, propriz salutis immemores et a fide 
catholica deuiantes, cum dzemonibus incubis et succubis abuti. 

66 The Dean of S. Paul’s (Christian Mysticism, 1899, p. 265) urbanely 
dismisses the whole subject with a quotation from Lucretius : 


Hunc igitur terrorem animi, tenebrasque necessest 
Non radii solis, neque lucida tela diei 
Discutiant, sed nature species ratioque. (I. 147-49.) 


These Fears, that darkness that o’erspreads our Souls, 
Day can’t disperse, but those eternal rules 

Which from firm Premises true Reason draws, 

And a deep insight into Natures laws. (Creech.) 


67 De Demonialitate, 24, 


108 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


68 Survival, by various authors. Edited by Sir James Marchant, K.B.E., 
LL.D. London and New York. 

69 So in Middleton’s The Witch, when the young gallant Almachildes visits 
Hecate’s abode, she exclaims : 


"Tis Almachildes—the fresh blood stirs in me— 
The man that I have lusted to enjoy : 
I’ve had him thrice in incubus already. 


And in a previous scene Hecate has said : 


What young man can we wish to pleasure us, 
But we enjoy him in an incubus ? 


70 Ce commerce monstreux dura plusiers mois; mais Dieu le délivra enfin 
par mon entremise et il fit pénitence de ses péchés. 

71 Auoir esté au Sabbat; ne sgait comme elle y fut transportée ... qu’au 
Sabbat le Diable cogneust charnellement toutes les femmes qui y estoient, & 
elle aussi la marqua en deux endroicts. ... Que le Diable la cogneu vne autre- 
fois, & qu’il a le membre faict comme un cheual, en entrant est froid comme 
glace, iette la semence fort froide, & en sortant la brusse comme si c’estoit 
du feu. Quelle receut tout mescontentement que lors qu’il eut habité auec 
elle au Sabbat, vn autre homme.qu’elle ne cognoist fit le semblable en presence 
de tous, que son mary s’appercut quand le Diable eut affaire auec elle, & que 
le Diable se vint coucher auprez d’elle fort froid, luy mit la main sur le bas 
du ventre, dont elle effrayée en ayant aduerty son mary, il luy dict ces mots, 
Taiso-toy folle, taise-toy. Que son mary vit quand le Diable la cogneust au 
Sabbat, ensemble cet autre qui la cogneust aprés. 

72 L’accouplement du Demon avec la Sorciere et le Sorcier....1. Le Demon 
cognoit toutes les Sorcieres, & pourquoy. 2. Il se met aussi en femme 
pour les Sorciers, & pourquoy. 3. Autres raisons pour lesquelles le Demon 
cognoit les Sorciers, & Sorcieres. 

73... qui Satan l’auoit cogneue charnellement. . . . Et pource que les 
hommes ne cedent guieres aux femmes en lubricité. 

74 Tl y a encor deux autres raisons pour lesquelles le Diable s’accouple auec 
le Sorcier: La premiere, que l’offense est de tant plus grande: Car si Dieu 
a@ en si grande haine l’accouplement du fidelle auec l’infidele (Exodus xxxiv., 
Deuteronomy xxxvii.), & combien plus forte raison detesterait celuy de 
homme auec le Diable. La seconde raison est, que parce moyen la semence 
naturelle de ’homme se pert, d’oti vient que l’amitié qui est entre l>homme 
& la femme, se conuertit le plus souuent en haine, qui est l’vn des plus grands 
mal-heurs, qui pourroient arriuer au mariage. 

7° In chapter xili Boguet decides: laccouplement de Satan auec le Sorcier 
est réel & non imaginaire. .. . Les vns done s’en mocquét ... mais les con- 
fessions des Sorciers qui j’ay eu en main, me font croire qu’il en est quelque 
chose! dautant quwils ont tout recogneu, qu’ils auoient esté couplez auec le 
Diable, & que la semence qu’il iettoit estoit fort froide . . . Iaquema Paget 
adioustoit, qu’elle auoit empoigné plusiers fois auec la main le mébre du 
Demon, qui la cognoissoit, & que le membre estoit froid comme glace, log 
d’vn bon doigt, & moindre en grosseur que celuy d’vn homme: Tieuenne 
Paget, & Antoine Tornier adioustoient aussi, que le membre de leurs Demons 
estoit long, & gros comme l’vyn de leurs doigts. 

76 Heuze, Do the Dead Live? 1923. 

77 John Stearne’s Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft. 

78 Robert Pitcairn, Criminal Trials, Edinburgh, 1833, III. pp. 603, 611, 
617, 

79 Idem. 

80 Le Diable faict des mariages au Sabbat entre les Sorciers & Sorcieres, 
& leur joignant les mains, il leur dict hautement 


Esta es buena parati 
Esta parati lo toma. 


DEMONS AND FAMILIARS 109 


Mais auant qu’ils couchent ensemble, il s’accouple auec elles, oste la virginité 
des filles. Lancre, Tableau de lV Inconstance, p. 132. 

81 This has been emphasized by Miss Murray in The Witch-Cult tn Western 
Europe (‘‘ The Rites’), but she did not realize that the fascinum was well- 
known to demonologists, and the use thereof severely reprobated sub mortali 
by the Church. 

82 See G. Belluci, Amuletti Italiani antichi e contemporanei; also Amuletti 
italiani contemporanet. Perugia, 1898. 

88 Auctore P.P. Parisiis, MDCCCXXVI. 

84 Crudelissima anus. Petronii Satirae. 1388. p.105. Tertium edidit 
Buecheler. Berlin. 1895. 

85 Titi Petronii Satyricon, Concinnante Michaele Hadrianide. Amste- 
lodami, 1669. Amongst the figures on the engraved title-page is a witch 
mounted on her broomstick. 

86 Priapeia. LXXXIV. 

87 For whose impudicities see 8. Augustine, De Ciuitate Dei, VII. 26. 

88 Priapi lignei in honorem Bacchi. 

89 Francis Hutchinson, Historical Essay, London, 1718. 

99 Witches at Chelmsford, Philobiblion Society, VIII. 

91 Francis Hutchinson, Historical Essay on Witchcraft, 1718. 

92 Hlogia Doctorum Uirorum, c. 101. 

93 Liber II.; c. v.; 11, 12. 


CHAPTER IV 
THE SABBAT 


Tue Assemblies of the witches differed very much from each 
other in an almost infinite number of ways. On certain 
ancient anniversaries the meeting was always particularly 
solemn, with as large an attendance as possible, when all 
who belonged to the infernal cult would be required to 
present themselves and punishment was meted out to those 
who proved slack and slow ; at other times these gatherings 
would be occasional, resorted to by the company who resided 
within a certain restricted area, it might be by only one coven 
of thirteen, it might be by a few more, as opportunity served. 
There were also, as is to be expected, variations proper to 
each country, and a seemingly endless number of local 
peculiarities. There does not clearly appear to be any formal 
and fair order in the ceremonies throughout, nor should we 
look for this, seeing that the liturgy of darkness is of its 
essence opposed to the comely worship of God, wherein, as 
the Apostle bids, all things are to be done “‘ decently and in 
order.”’? The ceremonial of hell, sufficiently complex, obscure, 
and obscene, is even more confused in the witches’ narratives 
by a host of adventitious circumstances, often contradictory, 
nay, even mutually exclusive, and so although we can piece 
together a very complete picture of their orgies, there are 
some details which must yet remain unexplained, incompre- 
hensible, and perhaps wholly irrational and absurd. ‘‘ Le 
burlesque s’y méle 4 Vhorrible, et les puérilités aux abomina- 
tions.” (Ribet, La Mystique Divine, III. 2. Les Parodies 
Diaboliques.) (Mere clowning and japery are mixed up with 
circumstances of extremest horror; childishness and folly 
with loathly abominations.) In the lesser Assemblies much, 
no doubt, depended upon the fickle whim and unwholesome 
caprice of the officer or president at the moment. The conduct 
of the more important Assemblies was to a certain extent 
110 


THE SABBAT 111 


regularized and more or less loosely ran upon traditional 
lines. The name Sabbat may be held to cover every kind 
of gathering,’ although it must continually be borne in mind 
that a Sabbat ranges from comparative simplicity, the 
secret rendezvous of some half a dozen wretches devoted to 
the fiend, to a large and crowded congregation presided over 
by incarnate evil intelligences, a mob outvying the very 
demons in malice, blasphemy, and revolt, the true face of 
pandemonium on earth. 

The derivation of the word Sabbat does not seem to be 
exactly established. It is perhaps superfluous to point out 
that it has nothing to do with the number seven, and is 
wholly unconnected with the Jewish festival. Sainte-Croix 
and Alfred Maury? are agreed to derive it from the debased 
Bacchanalia. Sabazius (ZaSatios) was a Phrygian deity, 
sometimes identified with Zeus, sometimes with Dionysus, 
but who was generally regarded as the patron of licentiousness 
and worshipped with frantic debaucheries. He is a patron 
of the ribald old Syrian eunuch in Apuleius: ‘“‘ omnipotens 
et omniparens Dea Syria et sanctus Sabadius et Bellona 
et Mater Idaea (ac) cum suo Adone Venus domina’’? are the 
deities whom Philebus invokes to avenge him of the mocking 
erier. 2aGaety is found in the Scholiast on Aristophane 
(Birds, 874), and caBat, a Bacchic yell, occurs in a fragment 
of the Bapte of Eupolis ; the fuller phrase evot ZaGéu 
being reported by Strabo the geographer. The modern 
Greeks still call a madman aes. But Littré entirely rejects 
any such facile etymology. ‘‘ Attempts have been made 
to trace the etymology of the Sabbat, the witches’ assembly, 
from Sabazies; but the formation of the word does not 
allow it; besides, in the Middle Ages, what did they know 
about Sabazies ?”’® 

Even the seasons of the principal Assemblies of the year 
differ in various countries. Throughout the greater part 
of Western Europe one of the chief of these was the Eve of 
May Day, 30 April ;* in Germany’ famous as Die Walpurgis- 
Nacht. S. Walburga (Walpurgis; Waltpurde; at Perche 
Gauburge ; in other parts of France Vaubourg or Falbourg) 
was born in Devonshire circa 710. She was the daughter of 
S. Richard, one of the under-kings of the West Saxons, who 
married a sister of S. Boniface. In 748 Walburga, who was 


112 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


then a nun of Wimbourne, went over to Germany to found 
claustral life in that country. After a life of surpassing 
holiness she died at Heidenheim, 25 February, 777. Her 
cultus began immediately, and about 870 her relics were 
translated to Eichstadt, where the Benedictine convent which 
has charge of the sacred shrine still happily flourishes. 
S. Walburga was formerly one of the most popular Saints 
in England, as well as in Germany and the Low Countries. 
She is patroness of Eichstadt, Oudenarde, Furnes, Groningen, 
Weilburg, Zutphen, and Antwerp, where until the Roman 
office was adopted they celebrated her feast four times a 
year. In the Roman martyrology she is commemorated on 
1 May, but in the Monastic Kalendar on 25 February. The 
first of May was the ancient festival of the Druids, when they 
offered sacrifices upon their sacred mountains and kindled 
their May-fires. These magic observances were appropriately 
continued by the witches of a later date. There was not a 
hill-top in Finland, so the peasant believed, which at mid- 
night on the last day of April was not thronged by demons 
and sorcerers. 

The second witches’ festival was the Eve of 5S. John 
Baptist, 23 June. Then were the S. John’s fires lit, a custom 
in certain regions still prevailing. In olden times the 
Feast was distinguished like Christmas with three Masses ; 
the first at midnight recalled his mission as Precursor, the 
second at dawn commemorated the baptism he confessed, 
the third honoured his sanctity. 

Other Grand Sabbat days, particularly in Belgium and 
Germany, were 8S. Thomas’ Day (21 December) and a date, 
which seems to have been movable, shortly after Christmas. 
In Britain we also find Candlemas (2 February), Allhallowe’en 
(31 October), and Lammas (1 August), mentioned in the 
trials. Wright, Narratives of Sorcery and Magic (I. p. 141), 
further specifies S. Bartholomew’s Eve, but although a 
Sabbat may have been held on this day, it would seem to 
be an exceptional or purely local use. 

During a famous trial held in the winter of 1610 at Logrono, 
a town of Old Castille, by the Apostolic Inquisitor, Alonso 
Becerra Holguin, an Alcantarine friar, with his two assessors 
Juen Valle Alvarado and Alonso de Salasar y Frias, a number 
of Navarrese witches confessed that the chief Sabbats were 


THE SABBAT 113 


usually held at Zugarramurdi and Berroscoberro in the 
Basque districts, and that the days were fixed, being the 
vigils of the “nine principal feasts of the year,’ namely, 
Kaster, Epiphany, Ascension Day, the Purification and 
Nativity of Our Lady, the Assumption, Corpus Christi, All 
Saints, and the major festival of S. John Baptist (24 June). 
It is certainly curious to find no mention of Christmas and 
Pentecost in this list, but throughout the whole of the process 
not one of the accused—and we have their evidence in fullest 
detail—named either of these two solemnities as being chosen 
for the infernal rendezvous. ° 

Satan is, as Boguet aptly says, ‘‘ Singe de Dieu en tout,’’}° 
and it became common to hold a General Sabbat about the 
time of the high Christian festivals in evil mockery of these 
holy solemnities, and he precisely asserts that the Sabbat 
“se tient encor aux festes les plus solemnelles de l’année.”’44 
(Is still held on the greatest festivals of the year.) So he 
records the confession of Antide Colas (1598), who ‘“‘ auoit 
esté au Sabbat a vn chacun bon iour de l’an, comme & Noel, 
a Pasques, a la feste de Dieu.’’ The Lancashire witches met 
on Good Friday; and in the second instance (1683) on 
All Saints’ Day; the witches of Kinross (1662) held an 
assembly on the feast of Scotland’s Patron, S. Andrew, 
30 November, termed ‘‘S. Andrew’s Day at Yule,’’ to dis- 
tinguish it from the secondary Feast of the Translation of 
S. Andrew, 9 May. The New England witches were wont to 
celebrate their chief Sabbat at Christmas. In many parts 
of Europe where the Feast of S. George is solemnized with 
high honour and holiday the vigil (22 April) is the Great 
Sabbat of the year. The Huzulo of the Carpathians believe 
that then every evil thing has power and witches are most 
dangerous. Not a Bulgarian or Roumanian farmer but 
closes up each door and fastens close each window at night- 
fall, putting sharp thorn-bushes and brambles on the lintels, 
new turf on the sills, so that no demon nor hag may find 
entry there. 

The Grand Sabbats were naturally held in a great variety 
of places, whilst the lesser Sabbats could be easily assembled 
in an even larger number of spots, which might be convenient 
to the coven of that district, a field near a village, a wood, 
a tor, a valley, an open waste beneath some blasted oak, a 

I 


114 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


cemetery, a ruined building, some solitary chapel or semi- 
deserted church, sometimes a house belonging to one of the 
initiates. 

It was advisable that the selected locality should be 
remote and deserted to obviate any chance of espionage or 
casual interruption, and in many provinces some wild ill- 
omened gully or lone hill-top was shudderingly marked as 
the notorious haunt of witches and their fiends. De Lancre 
says that the Grand Sabbat must be held near a stream, 
lake, or water of some kind,!? and Bodin adds: ‘“‘ The places 
where Sorcerers meet are remarkable and generally dis- 
tinguished by some trees, or even a cross.’’! These ancient 
cromlechs and granite dolmens, the stones of the Marais 
de Dol, the monolith that lies between Seny and Ellemelle 
(Candroz), even the market-crosses of sleepy old towns and 
English villages, were among the favourite rendezvous of 
the pythons and warlocks of a whole countryside. On one 
occasion, which seems exceptional, a Sabbat was held in the 
very heart of the city of Bordeaux. Throughout Germany 
the Blocksburg or the Brocken, the highest peak of the Hartz 
Mountains, was the great meeting-place of the witches, some 
of whom, it was said, came from distant Lapland and Norway 
to forgather there. But local Blocksburgs existed, or rather 
hills so called, especially in Pomerania, which boasted two or 
three such crags. The sorcerers of Corriéres held their Sabbat 
at a deserted spot, turning off the highway near Combes ; 
the witches of la Mouille in a tumbledown house, which had 
once belonged to religious; the Gandillons and their coven, 
who were brought to justice in June, 1598, met at Fontenelles, 
a forsaken and haunted spot near the village of Nezar. 
Dr. Fian and his associates (1591) ‘“‘upon the night of 
Allhollen-Even ’’ assembled at ‘‘ the kirke of North-Berrick 
in Lowthian.” Silvain Nevillon, who was executed at 
Orleans, 4 February, 1615, confessed ‘‘ que le Sabbat se tenoit 
dans vne maison,’ and the full details he gave shows this 
to have been a large chateau, no doubt the home of some 
wealthy local magnate, where above two hundred persons 
could assemble. Isobel Young, Christian Grinton, and two 
or three other witches entertained the Devil in Young’s 
house in 1629. Alexander Hamilton, a ‘‘ known warlock ”’ 
executed at Edinburgh in 1630, confessed that “ the pannel 


THE SABBAT 115 


took him one night to a den betwixt Niddrie and Edmiston, 
where the devill had trysted hir.’”? Helen Guthrie, a Forfar 
witch, and her coven frequented a churchyard, where they 
met a demon, and on another occasion they ‘“‘ went to Mary 
Rynd’s house, and sat doune together at the table... 
and made them selfes mirrie, and the divell made much of 
them all” (1661). The Lancashire witches often held their 
local Sabbat at Malking Tower. From the confession of the 
Swedish witches (1670) at Mohra and Elfdale they assembled 
at a spot called Blockula “‘ scituated in a delicate large Meadow 
. . . The place or house they met at, had before it a Gate 
painted with divers colours; . . . In a huge large Room of 
this House, they said, there stood a very long Table, at which 
the Witches did sit down; And that hard by this Room was 
another Chamber in which there were very lovely and 
delicate Beds.”!4 Obviously a fine Swedish country house, 
perhaps belonging to a wealthy witch, and in the minds of 
the poorer members of the gang it presently became imagi- 
natively exaggerated and described. 

Christian Stridtheckh De Sagis (XL) writes: ‘‘ They have 
different rendezvous in different districts ; yet their meetings 
are generally held in wooded spots, or on mountains, or in 
caves, and any places which are far from the usual haunts 
of men. Mela, Book III, chapter 44, mentions Mount 
Atlas; de Vaulz, a warlock executed at Etaples in 1608, 
confessed that the witches of the Low Countries were 
wont most frequently to meet in some spot in the province 
of Utrecht. In our own country, the Mountain of the 
Bructeri, which some call Melibceus, in the duchy of Bruns- 
wick, is known and notorious as the haunt of witches. In 
the common tongue this Mountain is called the Blocksberg 
or Heweberg, Brockersburg or Vogelsberg, as Ortelius notes in 
his Thesaurus Geographicus.”15 The day of the week whereon 
a Sabbat was held differed in the various districts and 
countries, although Friday seems to have been most gen- 
erally favoured. There is indeed an accumulation of evidence 
for every night of the week save Saturday and Sunday. De 
Lancre records that in the Basses-Pyrénées ‘“‘ their usual 
rendezvous is the spot known as Lane du Bouc, in the Basque 
tongue Aquelarre de verros, prado del Cabron, & there the 
Sorcerers assemble to worship their master on three particular 


116 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


nights, Monday, Wednesday, Friday.”1® Boguet says that the 
day of the Sabbat varied, but usually a Thursday night was pre- 
ferred.1? In England it was stated that the ‘“‘ Solemn appoint- 
ments, and meetings... are ordinarily on Tuesday or Wednes- 
day night.” 18 Saturday was, however, particularly avoided 
as being the day sacred to the immaculate Mother of God. 

It is true that the hysterical and obscene ravings of Maria 
de Sains, a witness concerned in the trial of Louis Gaufridi 
and who was examined on 17-19 May, 1614, assert that the 
Sabbat used to be held on every day of the week. Wednesday 
and Friday were the Sabbats of blasphemy and the black 
ass. To the other days the most hideous abominations of 
which humanity is capable were allotted. The woman was 
obviously sexually deranged, affected with mania blas- 
phematoria and coprolalia. 

Night was almost invariably the time for the Sabbat, 
although, as Delrio says, there is no actual reason why these 
evil rites should not be performed at noon, for the Psalmist 
speaks of ‘‘the terror of the night,’ the ‘ business that 
walketh about in the dark,” and of ‘‘ the noonday devil.’”?* 
(“Non timebis a timore nocturno ... a negotio peram- 
bulante in tenebris; ab incursu et demonio meridiano.”’) 
And so Delrio very aptly writes : ‘‘ Their assemblies generally 
are held at dead of night when the Powers of Darkness reign ; 
or, sometimes, at high noon, even as the Psalmist saith, when 
he speaks of ‘ the noonday devil.’ The nights they prefer are 
Monday and Thursday.’’?° 

The time at which these Sabbats began was generally upon 
the stroke of midnight. ‘‘ Les Sorciers,’’ says Boguet, “ vont _ 
enuiron la minuict au Sabbat.’2! It may be remembered 
that in the Metamorphoseon of Apuleius, I, xi, the hags 
attack Socrates at night ‘“‘ circa tertiam ferme uigiliam.”’ 
Agnes Sampson, ‘‘ a famous witch ””—as Hume of Godscroft 
in his Account of Archibald, ninth Earl of Angus, calls her— 
commonly known as the wise wife of Keith, who made a 
prominent figure?? in the Fian trials, 1590, confessed that the 
Devil met her, ‘‘ being alone, and commanded her to be at 
North-Berwick Kirk the next night,”’ and accordingly she 
made her way there as she was bid ‘‘ and lighted at the 
Kirk-yard, or a little before she came to it, about eleven hours 
at even.’’?3 In this case, however, the Sabbat was preceded 


THE SABBAT wun Dy 


by a dance of nearly one hundred persons, and so probably 
did not commence until midnight. Thomas Leyis, Issobell 
Coky, Helen Fraser, Bessie Thorn, and the rest of the 
Aberdeen witches, thirteen of whom were executed in 1597, 
and seven more banished, generally met “‘ betuixt tuell & ane 
houris at nycht.’’?4 Boguet notes that in 1598 the witch 
Francoise Secretain “‘adioustoit qu’elle alloit tousiours au 
Sabbat enuiron la minuit, & beaucoup d’autres sorciers, que 
lay eu en main, ont dit le mesme.’”’ In 1600 Anna Mauczin 
of Tubingen confessed that she had taken part in witch 
gatherings which she dubbed Hochzeiten. They seem to have 
been held by a well just outside the upper gate of Rotenburg, 
and her evidence insists upon ‘“ midnight dances’”’ and 
revelling. A Scotch witch, Marie Lamont, ‘‘a young woman 
of the adge of Eighteen Yeares, dwelling in the parish of 
Innerkip’”’ on 4 March, 1662, confessed most ingenuously 
*‘that when shee had been at a mietting sine Zowle last, 
with other witches, in the night, the devill convoyed her 
home in the dawing.’’?® 

The Sabbat lasted till cock-crow, before which time none 
of the assembly was suffered to withdraw, and the advowal 
of Louis Gaufridi, executed at Aix, 1610, seems somewhat 
singular: ‘‘I was conveyed to the place where the Sabbat 
was to be held, and I remained there sometimes one, two, 
three, or four hours, for the most part just as I felt inclined.’’?® 
That the crowing ofacock dissolves enchantmentsis a tradition 
of extremest antiquity. The Jews believed that the clapping 
of a cock’s wings will make the power of demons ineffectual 
and break magic spells. So Prudentius sang: ‘“‘ They say 
that the night-wandering demons, who rejoice in dunnest 
shades, at the crowing of the cock tremble and scatter in 
sore affright.’’?? The rites of Satan ceased because the Holy 
Office of the Church began. In the time of S. Benedict 
Matins and Lauds were recited at dawn and were actually 
often known as Gallicinium, Cock-crow. In the exquisite 
poetry of S. Ambrose, which is chanted at Sunday Lauds, 
the praises of the cock are beautifully sung : 


Light of our darksome journey here, 
With days dividing night from night ! 

Loud crows the dawn’s shrill harbinger, 
And wakens up the sunbeams bright. 


118 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


Forthwith at this, the darkness chill 
Retreats before the star of morn; 

And from their busy schemes of ill 
The vagrant crews of night return. 


Fresh hope, at this, the sailor cheers ; 
The waves their stormy strife allay ; 

The Church’s Rock at this, in tears, 
Hastens to wash his guilt away. 


Arise ye, then, with one accord ! 
No longer wrapt in slumber lie; 
The cock rebukes all who their Lord 
By sloth neglect, by sin deny. 


At his clear ery joy springs afresh ; 

Health courses through the sick man’s veins ; 
The dagger glides into its sheath ; 

The fallen soul her faith regains. *§ 


A witch named Latoma confessed to Nicolas Remy that 
cocks were most hateful to all sorcerers. That bird is the 
herald of dawn, he arouses men to the worship of God; and 
many an odious sin which darkness shrouds will be revealed 
in the light of the coming day. At the hour of the Nativity, 
that most blessed time, the cocks crew all night long. A cock 
crew lustily at the Resurrection. Hence is the cock placed 
upon the steeple of churches. Pliny and Atlian tell us that 
a lion fears the cock; so the Devil “‘ leo rugiens”’ flees at 
cock-crow. 

‘“‘Le coq,” says De Lancre, “s’oyt par fois es Sabbats 
sonnat la retraicte aux Sorciers.’’ 

The witch resorted to the Sabbat in various manners. If 
it were a question of attending a local assembly when, at 
most, a mile or two had to be traversed, the company would 
go on foot. Very often the distance was even less, for it 
should be remembered that in the sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries, and indeed, as a matter of fact, up to a quite 
recent date, when the wayfarer had gone a few steps outside 
the gates of a town or beyond the last house in the village 
he was enfolded in darkness, entirely solitary, remote, 
eloined. If footmen with flambeaux, at least the humbler 
linkboy, were essential attendants after nightfall in the 
streets of the world’s great cities, London, Rome, Paris, 


THE SABBAT 119 


Madrid,?° how black with shadows, dangerous, and utterly 
lonesome was the pathless countryside! Not infrequently 
the witches of necessity carried lanterns to light them on 
their journey to the Sabbat. The learned Bartolomeo de 
Spina, O.P.,*1 in his T'ractatus de Strigibus et Lamits (Venice, 
1588), writes that a certain peasant, who lived at Clavica 
Malaguzzi, in the district of Mirandola, having occasion to 
rise very early one morning and drive to a neighbouring 
village, found himself at three o’clock, before daybreak, 
crossing a waste tract of considerable extent which lay 
between him and his destination. In the distance he suddenly 
caught sight of what seemed to be numerous fires flitting to 
and fro, and as he drew nearer he saw that these were none 
other than large lanthorns held by a bevy of persons who 
were moving here and there in the mazes of a fantastic dance, 
whilst others, as at a rustic picnic, were seated partaking of 
dainties and drinking stoups of wine, what time a harsh 
music, like the scream of a cornemuse, droned through the 
air. Curiously no word was spoken, the company whirled 
and pirouetted, ate and drank, in strange and significant 
silence. Perceiving that many, unabashed, were giving them- 
selves up to the wildest debauchery and publicly performing 
the sexual act with every circumstance of indecency, the 
horrified onlooker realized that he was witnessing the revels 
of the Sabbat. Crossing himself fervently and uttering a 
prayer he drove as fast as possible from the accursed spot, 
not, however, before he had recognized some of the company 
as notorious evil-doers and persons living in the vicinity who 
were already under grave suspicion of sorcery. The witches 
must have remarked his presence, but they seem to have 
ignored him and not even to have attempted pursuit. In 
another instance Fra Paolo de Caspan, a Dominican of great 
reputation for piety and learning, reports that Antonio de 
Palavisini, the parish priest of Caspan in the Valtellina, a terri- 
tory infected with warlocks, most solemnly affirmed that when 
going before daybreak to say an early Mass at a shrine hard by 
the village he had seen through clearings in the wood an 
assembly of men and women furnished with lanterns, who 
were seated in a circle and whose actions left no doubt that 
they were witches engaged in abominable rites. In both 
the above cases the lanterns were not required in the cere- 


120. THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


monies of the Sabbat, and they must have been carried for 
the purely practical purpose of affording light. 

Very often when going to a local Sabbat the coven of 
witches used to meet just beyond the village and make their 
way to the appointed spot in a body for mutual help and 
security. ‘This is pointed out by Bernard of Como, a famous 
scholar, who says: ‘‘ When they are to go to some spot hard 
by they proceed thither on foot cheerily conversing as they 
walk.”’*? The fact that the dark initiates walked to the 
Sabbat is frequently mentioned in the trials. Boguet, who 
is most exact in detail, writes: ‘‘ Sorcerers, nevertheless, 
sometimes walk to the Sabbat, and this is generally the case 
when the spot where they are to assemble does not lie very 
far from their dwellings.’’*> And in the interrogatory, 17 
May, 1616, of Barthélemi Minguet of Brécy, a young fellow 
of twenty-five, accused with seventeen more, we have: ‘‘ He 
was then asked in what place the Sabbat was held the last 
time he was present there. 

‘ He replied that it was in the direction of Billcron, at a 
cross-road which is on the high-road leading to Aix, in the 
Parish of Saint Soulange. He was asked how he proceeded 
thither. He replied that he walked to the place.’’34 

When Catharine Oswald of Niddrie (1625) one night took 
Alexander Hamilton ‘‘ a known warlock ”’ ‘‘ to a den betwixt 
Niddrie and Edmiston, where the devill had trysted hir,’’ it 
is obvious that the couple walked there together. 

On one occasion the truly subtle point was raised whether 
those who walked to the Sabbat were as guilty as those who 
were conveyed thither by the Devil. But De Lancre decides : 
“Tt is truly as criminal & abominable for a Sorcerer to go 
to the Sabbat on foot as to be voluntarily conveyed thither 
by the Devil.’’35 

Major Weir and his sister seem to have gone to a meeting 
with the Devil in a coach and six horses when they thus 
drove from Edinburgh to Musselburgh and back again on 
7 September, 1648. So the woman confessed in prison, and 
added “that she and her brother had made a compact with 
the devil,’’6 

Agnes Sampson, the famous witch of North Berwick (1590), 
confessed “that the Devil in mans lickness met her going 
out to the fields from her own house at Keith, betwixt five 


PLATE IV 





OFF TO THE SABBAT 


Queverdo 


[ face p. 120 





THE SABBAT 121 


and six at even, being alone and commanded her to be at 
North-berwick Kirk the next night. To which place she came 
on horse-back, conveyed by her Good-son, called Iohn 
Couper.’’8? The Swedish witches (1669) who carried children 
off to Blockula “ set them upon a Beast of the Devil’s pro- 
viding, and then they rid away.’ One boy confessed that 
“to perform the Journey, he took his own Fathers horse out 
of the Meadow, where it was feeding.”?8 Upon his return 
one of the coven let the horse graze in her own pasture, and 
here the boy’s father found it the next day. 

In the popular imagination the witch is always associated 
with the broomstick, employed by her to fly in wild career 
through mid-air. This belief seems almost universal, of all 
times and climes. The broomstick is, of course, closely 
connected with the magic wand or staff which was considered 
equally serviceable for purposes of equitation. The wood 
whence it was fashioned was often from the hazel-tree, 
witch-hazel, although in De Lancre’s day the sorcerers of 
Southern France favoured the ‘‘Souhandourra’’—Cornus 
sanguinea, dog-wood. Mid hurricane and tempest, in the 
very heart of the dark storm, the convoy of witches, strad- 
dling their broomsticks, sped swiftly along to the Sabbat, 
their yells and hideous laughter sounding louder than the 
crash of elements and mingling in fearsome discord with the 
frantic pipe of the gale. 

There is a very important reference to these beliefs from 
the pen of the famous and erudite Benedictine Abbot, Regino 
of Priim (A.D. 906), who in his weighty De ecclesiasticis 
disciplinis writes: ‘‘ This too must by no means be passed 
over that certain utterly abandoned women, turning aside 
to follow Satan, being seduced by the illusions and phantas- 
mical shows of demons firmly believe and openly profess that 
in the dead of night they ride upon certain beasts along with 
the pagan goddess Diana and a countless horde of women, 
and that in those silent hours they fly over vast tracts of 
country and obey her as their mistress, whilst on certain 
other nights they are summoned to do her homage and pay 
her service.”’® The witches rode sometimes upon a besom 
or a stick, sometimes upon an animal, and the excursion 
through the air was generally preceded by an unction with 
amagie ointment. Various recipes are given for the ointment, 


122 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


and it is interesting to note that they contain deadly poisons : 
aconite, belladonna, and hemlock.*® Although these unguents 
may in certain circumstances be capable of producing definite 
physiological results, it is Delrio who best sums up the reasons 
for their use: ‘‘ The Demon is able to convey them to the 
Sabbat without the use of any unguent, and often he does so. 
But for several reasons he prefers that they should anoint 
themselves. Sometimes when the witches seem afraid it 
serves to encourage them. When they are young and tender 
they will thus be better able to bear the hateful embrace 
of Satan who has assumed the shape of aman. For by this 
horrid anointing he dulls their senses and persuades these 
deluded wretches that there is some great virtue in the viscid 
lubricant. Sometimes too he does this in hateful mockery 
of God’s holy Sacraments, and that by these mysterious 
ceremonies he may infuse, as it were, something of a ritual 
and liturgical nature into his beastly orgies.’’*! 

Although the witch is universally credited with the power 
to fly through the air*? to the Sabbat mounted upon a besom 
or some kind of stick, it is remarkable in the face of popular 
belief to find that the confessions avowing this actual mode 
of aerial transport are extraordinarily few. Paul Grilland, 
in his tractate De Sortilegiis (Lyons, 1583), speaks of a witch 
at Rome during whose trial, seven years before, it was 
asserted she flew in the air after she had anointed her limbs 
with a magic liniment. Perhaps the most exactly detailed 
accounts of this feat are to be found in Boguet,*? than whom 
scarcely any writer more meticulously reports the lengthy 
and prolix evidence of witches, such evidence as he so 
laboriously gathered during the notorious prosecutions 
throughout Franche-Comté in the summer of 1598. He 
records quite plainly such statements as: ‘‘ Frangoise 
Secretain disoit, que pour aller au Sabbat, elle mettoit un 
baston blane entre ses iambes & puis pronongait certaines 
paroles & dés lors elle estoit portée par l’air iusques en 
V’assemblée des Sorciers.’’ (Francoise Secretain avowed that 
in order to go to the Sabbat she placed a white stick between 
her legs & then uttered certain words & then she was borne 
through the air to the sorcerers’ assembly). In another 
place she confessed “‘ qu’elle avoit esté vne infinité de fois 
au Sabbat , . , & qu’elle y alloit sur vn baston blanc, qu’elle 


THE SABBAT 123 


mettoit entre sesiambes.” (That she had been a great number 
of times to the Sabbat ... and that she went there on a 
white stick which she placed between her legs.) It will be 
noticed that in the second instance she does not explicitly 
claim to have been borne through the air. Again: “ Fran- 
coise Secretain y estoit portée [au Sabbat] sur vn baston 
blane. Satan y trdsporta Thieuenne Paget & Antide Colas 
estant en forme d’vn homme noir, sortans de leurs maison 
le plus souuent par la cheminée.” ‘‘ Claudine Boban, ieune 
fille confessa qu’elle & sa mére montoient sur vne ramasse, & 
que sortans le contremont de la cheminée elles alloient par 
Yair en ceste fagon au Sabbat.”” (Francoise Secretain was 
earried [to the Sabbat] on a white stick. Satan, in the form 
of a tall dark man conveyed thither Thieuenne Paget & 
Antide Colas, who most often left their house by way of the 
chimney. . . . Claudine Boban, a young girl, confessed that 
both she and her mother mounted on a besom, & that flying 
out by the chimney they were thus borne through the air 
to the Sabbat.) A marginal note explains ramasse as “ autre- 
ment balai, & en Lyonnois coiue.”’ 

Glanvill writes that Julian Cox, one of the Somerset coven 
(1665), said ‘‘ that one evening she walkt out about a Mile 
from her own House and there came riding towards her three 
persons upon three Broom-staves, born up about a yard and 
a half from the ground. Two of them she formerly knew, 
which was a Witch and a Wizzard.” It might easily be that 
there is some exaggeration here. We know that a figure in 
one of the witch dances consisted of leaping as high as possible 
into the air, and probably the three persons seen by Julian 
Cox were practising this agile step. A quotation from Bodin 
by Reginald Scot is very pertinent in this connexion. Speak- 
ing of the Sabbat revels he has: ‘‘ And whiles they sing and 
dance, euerie one hath a broome in his hand, and holdeth it 
vp aloft. Item he saith, that these night-walking or rather 
night-dansing witches, brought out of Italie into France, that 
danse which is called La Volta.’44 Sir John Davies in his 
Orchestra or A Poeme on Dauncing (18mo, 1596) describes 
the lavolta as ‘‘ A loftie iumping, or a leaping round.”’ 
De Lancre observes that after the regular country dance at 
the Sabbat the witches sprang high into the air. “‘ Apres la 
dance ils se mettent par fois 4 sauter.’’*5 At their assembly 


124 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


certain of the Aberdeen witches (1597) ‘* danced a devilish 
dance, riding on trees, by a long space.”’ In an old repre- 
sentation of Dr. Fian and his company swiftly pacing round 
North Berwick church withershins the witches are repre- 
sented as running and leaping in the air, some mounted on 
broomsticks, some carrying their besoms in their hands. 

There was discovered in the closet of Dame Alice Kyteler 
of Kilkenny, who was arrested in 1324 upon the accusation 
of nightly meeting a familiar Artisson and multiplied charges 
of sorcery, a pipe of ointment, wherewith she greased a staff 
‘‘upon which she ambolled and gallopped thorough thicke 
and thin, when and what manner she listed.’’4® In the trial 
of Martha Carrier, a notorious witch and ‘“‘ rampant hag ” 
at the Court of Oyer and Terminer, held by adjournment at 
Salem, 2 August, 1692, the eighth article of the indictment 
ran: ‘One Foster, who confessed her own share in the 
Witchcraft for which the Prisoner stood indicted, affirm’d, 
that she, had seen the prisoner at some of their Witch- 
meetings, and that it was this Carrier, who perswaded her to 
be a Witch. She confessed that the Devil carry’d them on 
a pole, to a Witch-meeting: but the pole broke, and she 
hanging about Carriers neck, they both fell down, and she 
then received an hurt by the Fall, whereof she was not at 
this very time recovered.’’4? 

In many of these instances it is plain that there is no 
actual flight through the air implied; although there is a 
riding a-cock-horse of brooms or sticks, in fact, a piece of 
symbolic ritual. 

It is very pertinent, however, to notice in this connexton the 
actual levitation of human beings, which is, although perhaps 
an unusual, yet by no means an unknown, phenomenon in 
the séances of modern spiritism, where both the levitation of 
persons, with which we are solely concerned, and the rising 
of tables or chairs off the ground without contact with any 
individual or by any human agency have occurred again 
and again under conditions which cannot possibly admit of 
legerdemain, illusion, or charlatanry. From a mass of 
irrefutable evidence we may select some striking words by 
Sir William Crookes, F.R.S., upon levitation. ‘‘ This has 
occurred,”’ he writes, ‘‘in my presence on four occasions in 
darkness; but . . . I will only mention cases in which deduc- 


THE SABBAT 125 


tions of reason were confirmed by the sense of sight... . 
On one occasion I witnessed a chair, with a lady sitting on 
it, rise several inches from the ground. ... On another 
occasion the lady knelt on the chair in such manner that 
the four feet were visible to us. It then rose about three 
inches, remained suspended for about ten seconds, and then 
slowly descended... . 

“The most striking case of levitation which I have wit- 
nessed has been with Mr. Home. On three separate occasions 
have I seen him raised completely from the floor of the 
room. ... On each occasion I had full opportunity of 
watching the occurrence as it was taking place. There are 
at least a hundred recorded instances of Mr. Home’s rising 
from the ground.’’#8 

Writing in July, 1871, Lord Lindsay said: “I was sitting 
with Mr. Home and Lord Adare and a cousin of his.. During 
the sitting Mr. Home went into a trance, and in that state 
was carried out of the window in the room next to where 
we were, and was brought in at our window. The distance 
between the windows was about seven feet six inches, and 
there was not the slightest foothold between them, nor was 
there more than a twelve-inch projection to each window, 
which served as a ledge to put flowers on. We heard the 
window in the next room lifted up, and almost immediately 
after we saw Home floating in air outside our window.’’*® 

William Stainton Moses writes of his levitation in August, 
1872, in the presence of credible witnesses: ‘“‘ I was carried 
up... when I became stationary I made a mark [with a 
lead pencil] on the wall opposite to my chest. This mark is 
as near as may be six feet from the floor. . . . From the 
position of the mark on the wall it is clear that my head must 
have been close to the ceiling. . . . I was simply levitated 
and lowered to my old place.’’*° 

When we turn to the lives of the Saints we find that these 
manifestations have been frequently observed, and it will 
suffice to mention but a few from innumerable examples. 

S. Francis of Assisi was often ‘‘ suspended above the earth, 
sometimes to a height of three, sometimes to a height of 
four cubits’; the same phenomenon has been recorded by 
eye-witnesses in many instances throughout the centuries. 
Among the large number of those who are known to have 


126 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


been raised from the ground whilst wrapt in prayer are the 
stigmatized S. Catherine of Siena; S. Colette; Rainiero de 
Borgo San-Sepolcro; S. Catherine de Ricci; S. Alphonsus 
Rodriguez, S.J.; S. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi; Raimond 
Rocco ; Bl. Charles de Sezze ; S. Veronica Giuliani the 
Capuchiness; S. Gerard Majella, the Redemptorist thau- 
maturge ; that wondrous mystic Anne Catherine Emmerich ; 
Dominica Barbagli (died in 1858), the ecstatica of Monte- 
santo-Savino (Florence), whose levitations were of daily 
occurrence. §S. Ignatius Loyola whilst deeply contemplative 
was seen by John Pascal to be raised more than a foot from 
the pavement; S. Teresa and S. John of the Cross were 
levitated in concurrent ecstasies in the shady locutorio of the 
Encarnacion, as was witnessed by Beatriz of Jesus and the 
whole convent of nuns;5! §. Alphonsus Liguori whilst 
preaching in the church of 8. John Baptist at Foggia was 
lifted before the eyes of the whole congregation several feet 
from the ground ;5* Gemma Galgani of Lucca, who died 
11 April, 1903, was observed whilst praying one evening in 
September, 1901, before a venerated Crucifix, to rise in the 
air in a celestial trance and to remain several minutes at 
some distance from the floor.®? Above all, S. Joseph of 
Cupertino (1603-63), one of the most extraordinary mystics 
of the seventeenth century, whose whole life seemed one 
long series of unbroken raptures and ecstasies, was frequently 
lifted on high to remain suspended in mid-air. Such notice 
was attracted by this marvel that his superiors sent him 
from one lonely house of Capuchins or Conventuals to another, 
and he died at the little hill town of Osimo, where his 
remains are yet venerated. For many years he was obliged 
to say Mass at a private altar so inevitable were the ecstasies 
that fell upon him during the Sacrifice. There are, I think, 
few sanctuaries more sweet and more fragrant with holiness 
than this convent at Osimo. During a most happy visit to 
the shrine of S, Joseph I was deeply touched by the many 
memorials of the Saints, and by the kindness of the Fathers, 
his brethren to-day. S. Philip Neri and S. Francis Xavier 
were frequently raised from the ground at the Elevation, 
and of the ascetic S. Paul of the Cross the Blessed Strambi 
writes: “* Le serviteur de Dieu s’éleva en l’air a la hauteur 
de deux palmes, et cela, 4 deux reprises, avant et aprés la 


THE SABBAT 127 


consecration.”’®4 (The servant of God during Holy Mass was 
twice elevated in the air to a height of two hand-breadths 
from the ground both before and after the Consecration.) 
It is well known that in a certain London church a holy 
religious when he said Mass was not unseldom levitated 
from the predella, which manifestation I have myself wit- 
nessed, although the father was himself unconscious thereof 
until the day of his death. 

But, as Gorres most aptly remarks,®® although many 
examples may be cited of Saints who have been levitated 
in ecstasy, and although it is not impossible that this 
phenomenon may be imitated by evil powers—as, indeed, it 
undoubtedly is in the cases of spiritistic mediums—yet 
nowhere do we find in hagiography that a large number of 
Saints were in one company raised from the earth together 
or conveyed through the air to meet at some appointed spot. 
Is it likely, then, that the demons would be allowed seem- 
ingly to excel by their power a most extraordinary and 
exceptional manifestation ? It must be remembered, also, 
that save in very rare and singular instances, such as that 
of S. Joseph of Cupertino, levitation is only for a height of a 
foot or some eighteen inches, and even this occurs seldom 
save at moments of great solemnity and psychic con- 
centration. 

A question which is largely discussed by the demonologists 
then arises: Do the witches actually and in person attend 
the Sabbat or is their journey thither and assistance thereat 
mere diabolic illusion? Giovanni Francesco Ponzinibio, in 
his De Lamiis,°* wholly inclines to the latter view, but 
this is superficial reasoning, and the celebrated canonist 
Francisco Pefia with justice takes him very severely to task 
for his temerity. Pefia’s profound work, In Bernardi 
Comensis Dominicani Lucernam inquisitorum note et eiusdem 
tractatum de strigibus,°®’ a valuable collection of most erudite 
glosses, entirely disposes of Ponzinibio’s arguments, and puts 
the case in words of weighty authority. 

Sprenger in the Malleus Maleficarum, I, had already con- 
sidered ‘‘ How witches are bodily transported from one place 
to another,’”’ and he concludes ‘‘It is proven, then, that 
sorcerers can be bodily transported.’®§ Paul Grilland 
inquires: ‘“‘ Whether magicians & witches or Satanists are 


128 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


bodily & actually conveyed to and fro by the Devil, or 
whether this be merely imaginary ?”’ He freely acknow- 
ledges the extraordinary difficulty and intricacy of the 
investigation, beginning his answer with the phrase ‘‘ Quaestio 
ista est multum ardua et famosa.’’5® (This is a very difficult 
and oft-discussed question.) But S. Augustine, S. Thomas, 
S. Bonaventure, and a score of great names are agreed upon 
the reality of this locomotion, and Grilland, after balancing 
the evidence to the nicety of a hair wisely concludes: ‘‘ My- 
self I hold the opinion that they are actually transported.’ ®° 

In his Compendium Maleficarum Francesco Maria Guazzo 
discusses (Liber I. 18) ‘‘ Whether Witches are actually and 
bodily conveyed from place to place to attend their Sabbats ”’; 
and lays down: ‘“‘ The opinion which many who follow 
Luther & Melancthon hold is that Witches only assist at 
these assemblies in their imagination, & that they are choused 
by some trick of the devil, in support of which argument the 
objectors assert that the Witches have very often been seen 
lying in one spot and not moving thence. Moreover, what is 
related in the life of S. Germain is not impertinent in this 
connexion, to wit, when certain women declared that they 
had been present at a banquet, & yet all the while they 
slumbered and slept, as several persons attested. That 
women of this kind are very often deceived in such a way 
is certain; but that they are always so deceived is by no 
means sure. . . . The alternative opinion, which personally 
I hold most strongly, is that sometimes at any rate Witches 
are actually conveyed from one place to another by the 
Devil, who under the bodily form of a goat or some other 
unclean & monstrous animal himself carries them, & that 
they are verily and indeed present at their foul midnight 
Sabbats. This opinion is that generally held by the authori- 
tative Theologians and Master Jurisprudists of Italy and 
Spain, as also by the Catholic divines and legalists. The 
majority of writers, indeed, advance this view, for example, 
Torquemada in his commentary on Grilland, Remy, S. Peter 
Damian, Silvester of Abula, Tommaso de Vio Gaetani, 
Alfonso de Castro, Sisto da Siena, O.P., Pére Crespet, Barto- 
lomeo Spina in his glosses on Ponzinibio, Lorenzo Anania, 
and a vast number of others, whose names for brevity’s sake 
I here omit.’ ® 


THE SABBAT 129 


This seems admirably to sum up the whole matter. In 
the encyclopedic treatise De Strigibus®? by an earlier au- 
thority, Bernard of Como, the following remarkable passage 
occurs: “The aforesaid abominable wretches actually & 
awake & in full enjoyment of their normal senses attend these 
assemblies or rather orgies, and when they are to go to some 
spot hard by they proceed thither on foot, cheerily conversing 
as they walk. If, however, they are to meet in some distant 
place then are they conveyed by the Devil, yet by whatsoever 
means they proceed to the said place whether it be on foot 
or whether they are borne along by the Devil, it is most 
certain that their journey is real and actual, and not 
imaginary. Nor are they labouring under any delusion when 
they deny the Catholic Faith, worship and adore the Devil, 
tread upon the Cross of Christ, outrage the Most Blessed 
Sacrament, and give themselves up to filthy and unhallowed 
copulations, fornicating with the Devil himself who appears 
to them in a human form, being used by the men as asuccubus, 
& carnally serving the woman as an incubus.’’® 

The conclusion then is plain and proven. The witches do 
actually and individually attend the Sabbat, an orgy of 
blasphemy and obscenity. Whether they go thither on foot, 
or horseback, or by some other means is a detail, which in 
point of fact differs according to the several and infinitely 
varied circumstances. 

It is not denied that in some cases hallucination and 
self-deception played a large part, but such examples are 
comparatively speaking few in number, and these, moreover, 
were carefully investigated and most frequently recognized 
by the judges and divines. Thus in the Malleus Maleficarum 
Sprenger relates that a woman, who had voluntarily sur- 
rendered herself to be examined as being a witch, confessed 
to the Dominican fathers that she nightly assisted at the 
Sabbat, and that neither bolts nor bars could prevent her 
from flying to the infernal revels. Accordingly she was shut 
fast under lock and key in a chamber whence it was impossible 
for her to escape, and all the while carefully watched by 
lynx-eyed officers through a secret soupirail. These reported 
that immediately the door was closed she threw herself on 
the bed where in a moment she was stretched out perfectly 
rigid in all her members. Select members of the tribunal, 

K 


1380 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


grave and acute doctors, entered the room. They shook her, 
gently at first, but presently with considerable roughness. 
She remained immobile and insensible. She was pinched 
and pulled sharply. At last a lighted candle was brought 
and placed near her naked foot until the flesh was actually 
scorched in the flame. She lay stockish and still, dumb and 
motionless as a stone. After a while her senses returned to 
her. She sat up and related in exact detail the happenings 
at the Sabbat she had attended, the place, the number of the 
company, the rites, what was spoken, all that was done, and 
then she complained of a hurt upon her foot. Next day the 
fathers explained to her all that had passed, how that she 
had never stirred from the spot, and that the pain arose 
from the taper which to ensure the experiment had been 
brought in contact with her flesh. They admonished her 
straightly but with paternal charity, and upon the humble 
confession of her error and a promise to guard against any 
such ill fantasies for the future, a suitable penance was 
prescribed and the woman dismissed. 

In the celebrated cases investigated by Henri Boguet, 
June, 1598, young George Gandillon confessed to having 
walked to the Sabbat at a deserted spot called Fontenelles, 
near the village of Nezar, and also to having ridden to the 
Sabbat. Moreover, in his indictment the following occurs : 
‘‘ George Gandillon, one Good Friday night, lay in his bed, 
rigid as a corpse, for the space of three hours, & then on a 
sudden came to himself. He has since been burned alive 
here with his father & his sister.’’®4 

Since Boguet, who is one of our chief authorities, discusses 
the Sabbat with most copious details in his Discours des. 
Sorciers it will not be impertinent to give here the head- 
ings and subdivisions of his learned and amply docu- 
mented chapters. ®®* 


Chapter XVI. How, & in what way Sorcerers are conveyed 
to the Sabbat. 


1. They are sometimes conveyed there mounted on a stick, 
or a broom, sometimes on a sheep or a goat, & some- 
times by a tall black man. 

2. Sometimes they anoint themselves with ointment, & some- 
times not. 


3. 


4, 


5. 


THE SABBAT 131 


There are some people, who although they are not Sor- 
cerers, if they are anointed, are none the less carried 
off to the Sabbat. The reason for this. 

The unguent, & the ointment are actually of no use to the 
Sorcerers, and do not in effect carry them to the Sabbat. 

Sorcerers are sometimes conveyed to the Sabbat by a blast 
of wind & a sudden storm. 


Chapter XVII. Sorcerers may sometimes walk to the 
Sabbat on foot. 

Chapter XVIII. Is the journey of Sorcerers to the Sabbat 
merely imagination ? 


1 


2. 


9, 


& 3. Reasons for supposing this to be the case, & 
examples. 


Indications, owing to which it may be supposed, that a 


certain woman paid a purely imaginary visit to the 
Sabbat. 


. Reasons for supposing that the journey of Sorcerers to 


the Sabbat, is a real expedition and not imaginary. 


. How we are to understand what is related concerning 


Erichtho, & Apollonius ; the first of whom raised a 
soldier to life, & the latter a young girl. 


. Sorcerers cannot raise the dead to life. Examples. 
ce 
8. The Author’s opinion concerning the subject of this 


Neither can heretics perform miracles. Examples. 


chapter. 
Satan most frequently deceives mankind. Examples. 


Chapter XIX. 


1. 
2. 
8. 


4A. 


Sorcerers go to the Sabbat about midnight. 

The reason why the Sabbat is generally held at night. 

Satan delights in darkness & blackness, which are opposite 
to the whiteness and light that please Heaven. 

At the Sabbat Sorcerers dance back to back. For the most 
part they wear masks. 


5 & 8. When the cock crows the Sabbat immediately comes 


6. 


768 


to an end, and vanishes away. The reason for this. 
The voice of the cock frightens Satan in the same way as 
ut terrifies lions & serpents. 
Several authors relate that demons fear a naked sword. 


132 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


Chapter XX. The days on which the Sabbat is held. 


1. The Sabbat may be held on any day of the week, but 
particularly on a Friday. 
2. It is also held on the greatest festivals of the year. 


Chapter XXI. The places where the Sabbat is held. 


1. According to many writers the place where the Sabbat is 
held is distinguished by a clump of trees, or sometimes 
by across. The Author’s opinion on this point. 

2. A remarkable account of a place where the Sabbat was 
held. 

3. There must be water near the place where the Sabbat 1s 
held. The reason for this. 

4. If there is no water in the place, the Sorcerers dig a hole 
in the ground and urinate in this. 


Chapter XXII. The proceedings at the Sabbat. 


1. The Sorcerers worship the Devil who appears wnder the 
form of a tall black man, or as a goat. They offer him 
candles & kiss his posterior. 

2. They dance. A description of their dances. 

3. They give themselves up to every kind of filthy abomina- 
tion. The Devil transforms himself into an Incubus 
& into a Succubus. 

4. The hideous orgies & foul copulations practised by the 
Euchites, & Gnostics. 

5. The Sorcerers feast at the Sabbat. Their meat & their 
drink. The way in which they say grace before and 
after table. 

6. However, this food never satisfies their appetites, & they 
always arise from table as hungry as before. 

7%. When they have finished their meal, they give the Devil 
a full account of all their actions. 

8. They again renounce God, their baptism, &c. How Satan 
incites them to do evil. 

9. They raise dark storms. 

10. They celebrate their mass. Of their vestments, & holy 
water. 

11. Sometimes to conclude the Sabbat Satan seems to be 
- consumed in a flame of fire, & to be completely reduced 


THE SABBAT 133 


to ashes. All present take a small part of these ashes, 
which the Sorcerers use for their charms. 
12. Satan is always the Ape of God in everything. 


As the procedure in the various Sabbats differed very 
greatly according to century, decade, country, district, nay, 
even in view of the station of life and, it would seem, the 
very temperaments of the assembly, it is only possible to 
outline in a general way some of the most remarkable 
ceremonies which took place on the occasions of these infernal 
congregations. An intimate and intensive study of the 
Sabbat would require a large volume, for it is quite possible 
to reconstruct the rites in every particular, although the 
precise order of the ritual was not always and everywhere 
the same. 

Dom Calmet, it is true, has very mistakenly said: ‘‘ To 
attempt to give a description of the Sabbat, is to attempt 
a description of what does not exist, & what has never existed 
save in the fantastic & disordered imagination of warlocks 
& witches: the pictures which have been drawn of these 
assemblies are merely the phantasy of those who dreamed 
that they had actually been borne, body & soul, through the 
air to the Sabbat.’’®* Happy sceptic! But unfortunately 
the Sabbat did—and does—take place ; formerly in deserted 
wastes, on the hill-side, in secluded spots, now, as often as 
not, in the privacy of vaults and cellars, and in those lone 
empty houses innocently placarded ‘‘ To be Sold.” 

The President of the Sabbat was in purely local gatherings 
often the Officer of the district ; in the more solemn assem- 
blies convened from a wider area, the Grand Master, whose 
dignity would be proportionate to the numbers of the com- 
pany and the extent of his province. In any case the President 
was Officially known as the “‘ Devil,” and it would seem that 
his immediate attendants and satellites were also somewhat 
loosely termed ‘“‘ devils,’ which formal nomenclature has 
given rise to considerable confusion and not a little mystifi- 
cation in the reports of witch trials and the confessions of 
offenders. But in many instances it is certain—and ortho- 
doxy forbids us to doubt the possibility—that the Principle 
of Evil, incarnate, was present for the hideous adoration of 
his besotted worshippers. Such is the sense of the Fathers, 


134 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


such is the conclusion of the theologians who have dealt with 
these dark abominations. Metaphysically it is possible ; 
historically it is indisputable. 

When a human being, a man, occupied the chief position 
at these meetings and directed the performance of the rites, 
he would sometimes appear in a hideous and grotesque 
disguise, sometimes without any attempt at concealment. 
This masquerade generally took the shape of an animal, and 
had its origin in heathendom, whence by an easy transition 
through the ceremonial of heretics, it passed to the sorcerer 
and the witch. As early as the Liber Penitentialis of 
S. Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, 668-690, we have 
a distinct prohibition of this foul mummery. Capitulum xxvii 
denounces the man who ‘‘ in Kalendas Ianuarii in ceruulo et 
in uitula uadit.” ‘‘ If anyone at the kalends of January goes 
about as a stag or a bull; that is making himself into a wild 
animal and dressing in the skin of a herd animal, and putting 
on the head of beasts; those who in such wise transform 
themselves into the appearance of a wild animal, penance 
for three years because this is devilish.” 

Among the many animal forms which the leader of the 
Sabbat (the ‘‘ Devil’’) assumed in masquerade the most 
common are the bull, the cat, and above all the goat. Thus 
the Basque term for the Sabbat is ‘‘ Akhelarre,” “ goat 
pasture.’’ Sometimes the leader is simply said to have shown 
himself in the shape of a beast, which possibly points to the 
traditional disguise of a black hairy skin, horns, hoofs, claws, 
and a tail, in fact the same dress as a demon wore upon the 
stage.®? In an old German ballad, Druten Zeitung, printed 
at Smalcald in 1627, ‘‘to be sung to the tune of Dorothea,” 
it is said that the judges, anxious to extort a confession from 
a witch, sent down into her twilight dungeon the common 
hangman dressed in a bear’s skin with horns, hoofs, and tail 
complete. The miserable prisoner thinking that Lucifer had 
indeed visited her at once appealed to him for help: 

Man shickt ein Henkersnecht 
Zu ihr in Gefangniss n’unter, 
Den man hat kleidet recht, 
Mit einer Barnhaute, 
Als wenns der Teufel war ; 


Als ihm die Drut anschaute 
Meints ihr Biihl kam daher. 


THE SABBAT 135 


Here we have a curious and perhaps unique example of the 
demoniac masquerade subtly used to obtain evidence of 
guilt by a trick. The Aberdeen witch Jonet Lucas (1597) 
said that the Devil was at the Sabbat “* beand in likenes of 
ane beist.”” But Agnes Wobster of the same company 
declared that ‘‘ Satan apperit to them in the likenes of a calff,”’ 
so possibly two masquerades were employed. Gabriel Pellé 
(1608) confessed that he attended a Sabbat presided over by 
the Devil, and ‘‘ le Diable estoit en vache noire.’’®* Francoise 
Secretain, who was tried in August, 1598, saw the Devil 
‘““tantost en forme de chat.’’ Rolande de Vernois acknow- 
ledged ‘‘ Le Diable se presenta pour lors au Sabbat en forme 
d’vn groz chat noir.’’®® To the goat there are innumerable 
allusions. In the Basses-Pyrénées (1609): ‘* Le Diable estoit 
en forme de bouc ayant vne queue & audessous vn visage 
d’homme noir.”? (The Devil appeared in the form of a goat 
having a tail & his fundament was the face of a black man.) 
Iohannis d’Aguerre said that the Devil was ‘‘en forme de 
bouc.’’7° “‘ Marie d’Aguerre said that there was in the midst 
of the ring an immense pitcher whence the Devil issued in 
the form of a goat.’? Gentien le Clerc, who was tried at 
Orleans in 1614, ‘‘ said that, as he was told, his mother when 
he was three years old presented him at the Sabbat to a goat 
whom they saluted as l’Aspic.”7! ‘‘Sur le tréne,’’ writes 
Gorres, ‘‘ est assis un bouc, ou du moins la forme d’un bouc, 
car le démon ne peut cacher ce qu’il est.’’”? 

In 1630 Elizabeth Stevenson, alias Toppock, of Niddrie, 
avowed to her judges that in company with Catharine 
Oswald, who was tried for being by habite and repute a witch, 
and Alexander Hamilton, ‘‘a known warlock,’’ she went 
‘**to a den betwixt Niddrie and Edmiston, where the devill 
had trysted hir, where he appeared first to them like a foall, 
and then like a man, and appointed a new dyet at Salcott 
Muire.”” When one of Catharine Oswald’s intimates, Alex- 
ander Hunter, alias Hamilton, alias Hattaraick, a ‘‘ Warlok 
Cairle ’’? who ‘‘ abused the Countrey for a long time,’’’* was 
apprehended at Dunbar he confessed that the Devil would 
meet him riding upon a black horse, or in the shape of a 
corbie, a cat, or a dog. He was burned upon Castle Hill, 
Edinburgh, 1631. 

Sometimes those who are present at the Sabbat are 


136 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


masked. Canon Ribet writes: ‘Les visiteurs du sabbat se 
cachent quelquefois sous des formes bestiales, on se couvrent 
le visage d’un masque pour demeurer inconnus.”** (Those 
who attend the Sabbat sometimes disguise themselves as 
beasts, or cover their faces to conceal their identities.) 

At the famous Sabbat of one hundred and forty witches 
in North Berwick churchyard on All Hallow e’en, 1590, when 
they danced “ endlong the Kirk-yard”’ “‘ John Fian, mis- 
sellit [masked] led the ring.”” The Salamanca doctors mention 
the appearance at the Sabbats of persons “‘ aut aperta, aut 
linteo uelata facie,’’’7> ‘‘ with their faces sometimes bare, 
sometimes shrouded in a linen wimple.’’ And Delrio has in 
reference to this precaution: ‘‘ Facie interdum aperta, inter- 
dum uelata larua, linteo, uel alio uelamine aut persona.’’?® 
(Sometimes their faces are bare, sometimes hidden, either in 
a vizard, a linen cloth, or a veil, or a mask.) 

In the latter half of the eighteenth century the territory 
of Limburg was terrorized by a mysterious society known 
as “ The Goats.’? These wretches met at night in a secret 
chapel, and after the most hideous orgies, which included 
the paying of divine honours to Satan and other foul blas- 
phemies of the Sabbat, they donned masks fashioned to 
imitate goats’ heads, cloaked themselves with long disguise 
mantles, and sallied forth in bands to plunder and destroy. 
From 1772 to 1774 alone the tribunal of Foquemont con- 
demned four hundred Goats to the gallows. But the organi- 
zation was not wholly exterminated until about the year 
1780 after a regime of the most repressive measures and 
unrelaxing vigilance. 

Among certain tribes inhabiting the regions of the Congo 
there exists a secret association of Egbo worshippers. Egbo 
or Ekpé is the evil genius or Satan. His rites are Obeeyahism, 
the adoration of Obi, or the Devil, and devil-worship is 
practised by many barbarous races, as, for instance, by the 
Coroados and the Tupayas, in the impenetrable forests 
between the rivers Prado and Doce in Brazil, by the Abipones 
of Paraguay, as well as by the Bachapins, a Caffre race, by 
the negroes on the Gold Coast and the negroes of the West 
Indies. In the ju-ju houses of the Egbo sorcerers are obscene 
wooden statues to which great veneration is paid, since by 
their means divination is solemnly practised. Certain 


THE SABBAT 137 


festivals are held during the year, and at these it is interesting 
to note that the members wear hideous black masks with 
huge horns which it is death for the uninitiated to see. 

The first ceremony of the Sabbat was the worship of, and 
the paying homage to the Devil. It would seem that some- 
times this was preceded by a roll-call of the evil devotees. 
Agnes Sampson confessed that at the meeting in North 
Berwick, when the whole assembly had entered the church, 
“The Devil started up himself in the Pulpit like a mickle 
black man, and calling the Row, every one answered Here. 
Mr. Robert Grierson being named, they all ran hirdie girdie, 
and were angry: for it was promised he should be called 
Robert the Comptroller, alias Rob the Rower, for expriming 
of his name. The first thing he demanded was whether they 
had been good servants, and what they had done since the 
last time they had convened.” 

The witches adored Satan, or the Master of the Sabbat who 
presided in place of Satan, by prostrations, genuflections, 
gestures, and obeisances. In mockery of solemn bows and 
seemly courtesies the worshippers of the Demon approach 
him awkwardly, with grotesque and obscene mops and mows, 
sometimes straddling sideways, sometimes walking back- 
wards, as Guazzo says: Cum accedunt ad demones eos 
ueneraturi terga obuertunt & cessim eum cancrorum more 
supplicaturi manus inuersas retro applicant.*? But their 
chief act of homage was the reverential kiss, oseulum infame. 
This impious and lewd ritual is mentioned in detail by most 
authorities and is to be found in all lands and centuries. So 
Delrio writes: ‘‘ The Sabbat is presided over by a Demon, 
the Lord of the Sabbat, who appears in some monstrous 
form, most generally as a goat or some hound of hell, seated 
upon a haughty throne. The witches who resort to the 
Sabbat approach the throne with their backs turned, and 
- worship him , . . and then, as a sign of their homage, they 
kiss his fundament.”’ Guazzo notes: ‘‘ As.a sign of homage 
witches kiss the Devil’s fundament.” And Ludwig Elich 
says: ‘* Then as a token of their homage—with reverence 
be it spoken—they kiss the fundament of the Devil.’’’® 
** Y al tiempo que le besan debajo de la cola, da una vento- 
sidad de muy horrible olor,” adds the Spanish Relacion, 
** fetid, foul, and filthy.” 


188 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


To cite other authorities would be but to quote the same 
words. Thomas Cooper, indeed, seems to regard this cere- 
mony as a part of the rite of admission, but to confine it to 
this occasion alone is manifestly incorrect, for there is 
continual record of its observance at frequent Sabbats by 
witches of many years standing. ‘‘ Secondly,’ he remarks, 
‘‘ when this acknowledgement is made, in testimoniall of 
this subiection, Satan offers his back-parts to be kissed of 
his vassall.”79 But in the dittay of the North Berwick 
witches, all of whom had long been notorious for their 
malpractices, ‘‘ Item, the said Agnis Sampson confessed that 
the divell being then at North Barrick Kerke, attending 
their comming, in the habit or likenesse of a man,®® and 
seeing that they tarried over long, hee at their comming 
enjoyned them all to a pennance, which was, that they should 
kisse his buttockes, in sign of duety to him, which being put 
over the pulpit bare, every one did as he had enjoyned 
therm: "* 

One of the principal charges which was repeatedly brought 
against the Knights Templars during the lengthy ecclesi- 
astical and judicial processes, 1807-1314, was that of the 
osculum infame given by the juniors to their preceptors. 
Even so prejudiced a writer as Lea cannot but admit the 
truth of this accusation. In this case, however, it has nothing 
to do with sorcery but must be connected with the homo- 
sexuality which the Order universally practised. 

There are some very important details rehearsed in a Bull, 
8 June, 1808, of the noble but calumniated Boniface VIII, 
with reference to the case of Walter Langton, Bishop of 
Lichfield and Coventry (1296-1322), and treasurer of 
Edward I, when this prelate was accused of sorcery and 
homage to Satan: ‘‘ For some time past it has come to our 
ears that our Venerable Brother Walter Bishop of Coventry 
and Lichfield has been commonly defamed, and accused, 
both in the realm of England and elsewhere, of paying homage 
to the Devil by kissing his posterior, and that he hath had 
frequent colloquies with evil spirits.’’®? The Bishop cleared 
himself of these charges with the compurgators. Bodin 
refers to Guillaume Edeline, who was executed in 14538 as 
a wizard. He was a doctor of the Sorbonne, and prior of 
St. Germain en Laye: ‘‘ The aforesaid sire Guillaume 


THE SABBAT 139 


confessed . . . that he had done homage to the aforesaid 
Satan, who appeared in the shape of a ram, by kissing his 
buttocks in token of reverence and homage.’’®? A very rare 
tract of the fourteenth century directed against the Waldenses 


among other charges brings the following: ‘‘ Item, in ali- 
quibus aliis partibus apparet eis demon sub specie et figura 
cati, quem sub cauda sigillatim osculantur.”? (The Devil 


appears to them as a cat, and they kiss him sub cauda.)*4 

Barthélemy Minguet of Brécy, a young man of twenty-five, 
who was tried in 1616, said that at the Sabbat ‘‘ he often 
saw [the Devil] in the shape of a man, who held a horse by 
its bridle, & that they went forward to worship him, each 
one holding a pitch candle of black wax in their hands.’’*®® 
These candles, as Guazzo tells us, were symbolic and required 
by the ritual of the Sabbat, not merely of use for the purpose 
of giving light: ‘‘ Then they made an offering of pitch black 
candles, and as a sign of homage kissed his fundament.’’®® 
The candles were ordinarily black, and one taper, larger than 
the rest, was frequently carried by the Devil himself. At 
the North Berwick meeting when the witches were all to 
assemble in the church, ‘‘ John Fein blew up the Kirk doors, 
and blew in the lights, which wer like Mickl black candles 
sticking round about the Pulpit.”®”’ Boguet relates that the 
witches whom he tried confessed that the Sabbat commenced 
with the adoration of Satan, “‘ who appeared, sometimes in 
the shape of a tall dark man, sometimes in the shape of a 
goat, & to express their worship and homage, they made 
him an offering of candles, which burned with a blue light.’’®8 
John Fian, also, when doing homage to the Devil ‘‘ thought 
he saw the light of a candle . . . which appeared blue lowe.” 
This, of course, was on account of the sulphurous material 
whence these candles were specially compounded. De Lancre 
expressly states that the candles or flambeaux used at the 
Sabbat were made of pitch. 

An important feature of the greater Sabbats was the ritual 
dance, for the dance was an act of devotion which has 
descended to us from the earliest times and is to be found 
in every age and every country. Dancing is a natural move- 
ment, a primitive expression of emotion and ideals. In the 
ancient world there can have been few things fairer than 
that rhythmic thanksgiving of supple limbs and sweet voices 


140 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


which Athens loved, and for many a century was preserved 
the memory of that day when the young Sophocles lead the 
choir in celebration of the victory of Salamis.§® The Myste 
in the meadows of Elysium danced their rounds with the 
silver clash of cymbals and with madly twinkling snow-white 
feet. At the solemn procession of the Ark from Cariathiarim 
(Kirjath Jearim) King David ‘‘ danced with all his might 
before the Lord, . . . dancing and leaping before the Lord.”’ 
S. Basil urges his disciples to dance on earth in order to fit 
themselves for what may be one of the occupations of the 
angels in heaven. As late as the seventeenth century the 
ceremonial dance in church was not uncommon. In 1688 it 
was the duty of the senior canon to lead a dance of choir-boys 
in the Paris cathedral. Among the Abyssinian Christians 
dancing forms no inconsiderable part of worship. Year by 
year on Whit Tuesday hundreds of pilgrims dance through 
the streets of Echternach (Luxemburg) to the shrine of 
S. Willibrod in S. Peter’s Church. Formerly the devotees 
danced three times round the great Abbey Courtyard before 
proceeding to the sanctuary. But beyond all these the dance 
has its own place in the ritual of Holy Church even yet. 
Three times a year in Seville Cathedral—on Holy Thursday, 
upon Corpus Christi and the Immaculate Conception—Los 
Seises dance before a specially constructed altar, exquisitely 
adorned with flowers and lights, erected near the outer door 
of the grand western entrance of the cathedral. The cere- 
mony in all probability dates from the thirteenth century. 

The dresses of the boys, who dance before the improvised 
altar at Benediction on Corpus Christi, are of the period of 
Philip ITI, and consist of short trousers and jackets that hang 
from one shoulder, the doublets being of red satin, with rich 
embroidery. Plumed white hats with feathers are worn, also 
shoes with large scintillating buckles. On Holy Thursday 
the costume is also red and white, whilst it is blue and white 
for “‘ the day of the Virgin.” 

The eight boy choristers—with eight others as attendants— 
dance, with castanets in their hands, to a soft organ obbligato, 
down the centre of the cathedral to the decorated altar, 
advancing slowly and gracefully. Here they remain for about 
a quarter of an hour, singing a hymn, and accompanying it 
(as the carols of the olden time) with dance and castanets. 


THE SABBAT 141 


They sing a two-part hymn in front of the altar, forming in 
two eights, facing each other, the clergy kneeling in a semi- 
circle round them. 

Assuredly I cannot do better than quote Mr. Arthur 
Symons’ verdict on this dance as he saw it a few years back 
in Seville: ‘‘ And, yes, I found it perfectly dignified, perfectly 
religious, without a suspicion of levity or indecorum. This 
consecration of the dance, this turning of a possible vice into 
a means of devotion, this bringing of the people’s art, the 
people’s passion, which in Seville is dancing, into the church, 
finding it a place there, is precisely one of those acts of divine 
worldly wisdom which the Church has so often practised in 
her conquest of the world.” 

Not too fantastically has a writer suggested that High 
Mass itself in some sense enshrines a survival of the ancient 
religious dance—that stately, magnificent series of slow 
movements which surely may express devotion of the most 
solemn and reverent kind, as well as can the colour of vest- 
ment or sanctuary, or the sounds of melody. 

Since the dance is so essentially religious it must needs be 
burlesqued and buffooned by God’s ape. For the dance of 
the witches is degraded, awkward, foul, and unclean. These 
very movements are withershins, as Guazzo points out: 
‘““Then follow the round dances in which, however, they 
always tread the measure to the left.”’°° ‘* The Sorcerers,”’ 
says Boguet, “‘ dance a country-dance with their backs turned 
one to the other.’’®! This, of course, being the exact reverse 
of the natural country-dance. ‘Sometimes, although 
seldom,” he adds, “‘ they dance in couples, & sometimes one 
partner is there, another here, for always everything is in 
confusion.” ®? De Lancre writes of witches’ revels: ‘‘ They 
only dance three kinds of brawls. ... The first is d@ la 
Bohémienne . . . the second with quick trippings : these are 
round dances.’’®? In the third Sabbat measure the dancers 
were placed one behind another in a straight line. 

An old Basque legend reported by Estefanella Hirigaray 
describes how the witches were wont to meet near an old 
limekiln to dance their rounds, a ceremony regarded through- 
out that district as an essential feature of the Sabbat. 
De Lancre notes the brawls da la Bohémienne as especially 
favoured by sorcerers in Labourd. Sylvester Mazzolini, O.P. 


142 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


(1460-1523), Master of the Sacred Palace, and the great 
champion of orthodoxy against the heresiarch Luther, in his 
erudite De Strigimagia®* relates that in Como and Brescia 
a number of children between eight and twelve years old, 
who had frequented the Sabbat, but had been happily 
converted by the unsparing patience of the Inquisitors, at 
the request of the Superiors gave exhibitions of these dances 
when they showed such extraordinary adroitness and skill 
in executing the most intricate and fantastic figures that it 
was evident they had been instructed by no mere human 
tutelage. Marco de Viqueria, the Dominican Prior of the 
Brussels monastery, closely investigated the matter, and he 
was a religious of such known acumen and exceptional probity 
that his testimony soon convinced many prelates at Rome 
who were inclined to suspect some trickery or cunning 
practice. In Belgium this Sabbat dance was known as 
Pauana. 

In the Fian trial Agnes Sampson confessed that ‘* They 
danced along the Kirk-yeard, Geilic Duncan playing on a 
Trump, and John Fein mussiled led the Ring. The said 
Agnes and her daughter followed next. Besides these were 
Kate Gray, George Noilis his wife, . . . with the rest of their 
Cummers above an hundred Persons.”’®®> She further added 
‘that this Geillis Duncane did goe before them, playing 
this reill or daunce uppon a small trumpe, called a Jewe’s 
trumpe, untill they entered into the Kerk of North Bar- 
rick.’’® ‘*‘ These confessions made the King [James I, then 
James VI of Scotland] in a wonderfull admiration, and sent 
for the saide Geillis Duncane, who, upon the like trumpe, did 
play the saide daunce before the kinges maiestie.”’ 

Music generally accompanied the dancers, and there is 
ample evidence that various instruments were played, violins, 
flutes, tambourines, citterns, hautboys, and, in Scotland, 
the pipes. Those of the witches who had any skill were the 
performers, and very often they obliged the company awhile 
with favourite airs of a vulgar kind, but the concert ended 
in the most hideous discords and bestial clamour; the laws 
of harmony and of decency were alike rudely violated. In 
August, 1590, a certain Nicolas Laghernhard, on his way to 
Assencauria, was passing through the outskirts of a wood 
when he saw through the trees a number of men and women 


THE SABBAT 143 


dancing with filthy and fantastic movements. In amaze he 
signed himself and uttered the Holy Name, whereupon the 
company perceiving him took to flight, but not before he 
had recognized many of these wretches. He was prompt 
to inform the ecclesiastical tribunals, and several persons 
being forthwith questioned freely acknowledged their in- 
famies. Amongst these a shepherd named Michael, who 
enjoyed a considerable reputation for his musical talents and 
strangely fascinating voice, confessed that he was the piper 
at the local Sabbat and that his services were in constant 
requisition. At the lesser Sabbats (aquelarre) of Zugarra- 
murdi, a hamlet of Navarre, some six hundred souls, in the 
Bastan valley, some twelve leagues from Pampluna, one 
Juan de Goyburu was wont to play upon the flute, and 
Juan de Sansin the tambourine. These two unhappy 
wretches, having shown every sign of sincerest contrition, 
were reconciled to the Church. 

Sinclar in his Relation XXXV, ‘‘ Anent some Prayers, 
Charms, and Avies, used in the Highlands,” says: ‘‘ As the 
Devil is originally the Author of Charms, and S‘pells, so is he 
the Author of several baudy Songs, which are sung. A 
reverend Minister told me, that one who was the Devils 
Piper, a wizzard confest to him, that at a Ball of dancing, 
the Foul Spirit taught him a Baudy song to sing and play, 
as it were this night, and ere two days past all the Lads and 
Lasses of the town were lilting it throw the street. It were 
abomination to rehearse it.” Philip Ludwig Elich precisely 
sums up the confused scene: ‘‘ The whole foul mob and 
stinkard rabble sing the most obscene priapics and abomin- 
able songs in honour of the Devil. One witch yells, Harr, 
harr ; a second hag, Devil, Devil; jump hither, jump thither ; 
a third, Gambol hither, gambol thither; another, Sabaoth, 
Sabaoth, &c.; and so the wild orgy waxes frantic what time 
the bedlam rout are screeching, hissing, howling, cater- 
wauling, and whooping lewd wassail.’’®? Of all the horrors 
of the Sabbat the climax was that appalling blasphemy and 
abominable impiety by which the most Holy Sacrifice of 
the Altar was mocked and burlesqued in hideous fashion. 
And since no Christian will receive the Blessed Sacrament 
save he be duly fasting as the Church so strictly enjoins, the 
witches in derision of Christ’s ordinance satiate their appetites 


144 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


with a wolfish feast and cram themselves to excess with 
food of all kinds, both meat and drink, before they proceed 
to the ritual of hell. These orgies were often prolonged amid 
circumstances of the most beastly gluttony and drunkenness. 

Guazzo writes: ‘‘ Tables are laid and duly furnished, 
whereupon they set themselves to the board & begin to 
gobbet piecemeal the meats which the Devil provides, or 
which each member of the party severally brings with him.” °° 
De Lancre also says: ‘‘ Many authors say that sorcerers at 
the Sabbat eat the food which the Devil lays before them : 
but very often the table is only dressed with the viands they 
themselves bring along. Sometimes there are certain tables 
served with rare dainties, at others with orts and offal.” 
‘‘ Their banquets are of various kinds of food according to 
the district & the quality of those who are to partake.”’°® 
It seems plain that when the local head of the witches, who 
often presided at these gatherings absente diabolo, was a 
person of wealth or standing, delicacies and choice wines 
would make their appearance at the feast, but when it was 
the case of the officer of a coven in some poor and small 
district, possibly a meeting of peasants, the homeliest fare 
only might be served. The Lancashire witches of 1618, 
when they met at Malking Tower, sat down to a goodly 
spread of ‘‘ Beefe, Bacon, and roasted Mutton,”’ the sheep 
having been killed twenty-four hours earlier by James Device ; 
in 1633 Edmund Robinson stated that the Pendle witches 
offered him “ flesh and bread upon a trencher, and drink in 
a glass,” they also had ‘‘ flesh smoaking, butter in lumps, and 
milk,’ truly rustic dainties. Alice Duke, a Somerset witch, 
tried in 1664, confessed that the Devil ‘‘ bids them Welcome 
at their Coming, and brings them Wine, Beer, Cakes, and 
Meal, or the like.’’!°° At the trial of Louis Gaufridi at Aix 
in 1610 the following description of a Sabbat banquet was 
given: ‘‘ Then they feasted, three tables being set out 
according to the three aforesaid degrees. Those who were 
employed in serving bread had loaves made from wheat 
privily stolen in various places. They drank malmsey in 
order to excite them to venery. Those who acted as cup- 
bearers had filched the wine from cellars where it was stored. 
Sometimes they ate the tender flesh of little children, who 
had been slain and roasted at some Synagogue, and some- 


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THE SABBAT 145 


times babes were brought there, yet alive, whom the witches 
had kidnapped from their homes if opportunity offered,’’!% 
In many places the witches were not lucky enough to get 
bumpers of malmsey, for Boguet notes that at some Sabbats 
“ They not unseldom drink wine but more often water.’?}°2 

There are occasional records of unsavoury and tasteless 
viands, and there is even mention of putrefying garbage and 
carrion being placed before his evil worshippers by their 
Master. Such would appear to have been the case at those 
darker orgies when there was a manifestation of supernatural 
intelligences from the pit. 

The Salamanca doctors say: ‘‘They make a meal from 
food either furnished by themselves or by the Devil. It is 
sometimes most delicious and delicate, and sometimes a pie 
baked from babies they have slain or disinterred corpses. 
A suitable grace is said before such a table.” Guazzo thus 
describes their wine: ‘‘ Moreover the wine which is usually 
. poured out for the revellers is like black and clotted blood 
served in some foul and filthy vessel. Yet there seems to 
be no lack of cheer at these banquets, save that they furnish 
neither bread nor salt. Isabella further added that human 
flesh was served.’’1°4 

Salt never appeared at the witches’ table. Bodin gives us 
the reason that it is an emblem of eternity,1°> and Philip 
Ludwig Elich emphatically draws attention to the absence 
of salt at these infernal banquets.1°* ‘‘ At these meals,” 
remarks Boguet, “‘ salt never appears.’’!°7 Gentien le Clere, 
who was tried in Orleans in 1615, confessed: ‘‘ They sit 
down to table, but no salt is ever seen.’!98 Madeleine de la 
Palud declared that she had never seen salt, olives, or oil 
at the Devil’s feasts.1°9 

When all these wretches are replete they proceed to a 
solemn parody of Holy Mass. 

At the beginning of the eighteenth century Marcelline 
Pauper of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of 
Nevers was divinely called to offer herself up as a victim 
of reparation for the outrages done to the Blessed Sacrament, 
especially by sorcerers in their black masses at the Sabbat. 
In March, 1702, a frightful sacrilege was committed in the 
convent chapel. The tabernacle was forced open, the 
ciborium stolen, and those of the Hosts which had not been 

L 


146 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


carried away by the Satanists were thrown to the pavement 
and trampled under foot. Marcelline made ceaseless repara- 
tion, and at nine o’clock of the evening of 26 April, she 
received the stigmata in hands, feet, and side, and also the 
Crown of Thorns. After a few years of expiation she died 
at Tulle, 25 June, 1708. 

The erudite Paul Grilland tells us that the liturgy is 
burlesqued in every detail: ‘‘ Those witches who have 
solemnly devoted themselves to the Devil’s service, worship 
him in a particular manner with ceremonial sacrifices, which 
they offer to the Devil, imitating in all respects the worship 
of Almighty God, with vestments, lights, and every other 
ritual observance, and with a set liturgy in which they are 
instructed, so that they worship and praise him eternally, 
just as we worship the true God.”!!° This abomination of 
blasphemy is met with again and again in the confessions 
of witches, and although particulars may differ here and 
there, the same quintessence of sacrilege persisted through- 
out the centuries, even as alas! in hidden corners and secret 
lairs of infamy it skulks and lurks this very day. 

What appears extremely surprising in this connexion is 
the statement of Cotton Mather that the New England 
witches ‘‘ met in Hellish Randezvous, wherein the Confessors 
(i.e. the accused who confessed) do say, they have had their 
Diabolical Sacraments, imitating the Baptism and the Supper 
of our Lord.”4! At the trial of Bridget Bishop, alias Oliver, 
at the Court of Oyer and Terminer, held at Salem, 2 June, 
1692, Deliverance Hobbs, a converted witch, affirmed “ that 
this Bishop was at a General Meeting of the Witches, in a Field 
at Salem-Village, and there partook of a Diabolical Sacrament 
in Bread and Wine then administered.”’ In the case of 
Martha Carrier, tried 2 August, 1692, before the same court, 
two witnesses swore they had seen her “‘ at a Diabolical 
Sacrament ... when they had Bread and Wine Adminis- 
tered unto them.” Abigail Williams confessed that on 
31 March, 1692, when there was a Public Fast observed in 
Salem on account of the scourge of sorcery ‘‘ the Witches had 
a Sacrament that day at an house in the Village, and that 
they had Red Bread and Red Drink.” This ‘ Red Bread ” 
is certainly puzzling. But the whole thing, sufficiently pro- 
fane no doubt, necessarily lacks the hideous impiety of the 


THE SABBAT 147 


black mass. A minister, the Rev. George Burroughs, is 
pointed to by accumulated evidence as being the Chief of 
the Salem witches; ‘‘he was Accused by Eight of the 
Confessing Witches as being an Head Actor at some of their 
Hellish Randezvouses, and one who had the promise of being 
a King in Satan’s kingdom”; it was certainly he who 
officiated at their ceremonies, for amongst others Richard 
Carrier “‘affirmed to the jury that he saw Mr. George 
Burroughs at the witch meeting at the village and saw him 
administer the sacrament,’ whilst Mary Lacy, senr., and her 
daughter Mary “affirmed that Mr. George Burroughs was 
at the witch meetings with witch sacraments.’’}!2 

The abomination of the black mass is performed by some 
apostate or renegade priest who has delivered himself over 
to the service of evil and is shamefully prominent amongst 
the congregation of witches. It should be remarked from 
this fact that it is plain the witches are as profoundly con- 
vinced of the doctrines of Transubstantiation, the Totality, 
Permanence, and Adorableness of the Eucharistic Christ, and 
of the power also of the sacrificing priesthood, as is the most 
orthodox Catholic. Indeed, unless such were the ease, their 
revolt would be empty, void at any rate of its material 
malice. 

One of the gravest charges brought against the Templars 
and in the trials (13807-1314) established beyond any question 
or doubt was that of celebrating a blasphemous mass in 
which the words of consecration were omitted. It has, 
indeed, been suggested that the liturgy used by the Templars 
was not the ordinary Western Rite, but that it was an 
Eastern Eucharist. According to Catholic teaching the 
Consecration takes place when the words of institution are 
recited with intention and appropriate gesture, the actual 
change of the entire substances of bread and wine into the 
Body and Blood of Christ being effected in virtue of the 
words Hoc est enim Corpus meum; Hic est enim Calix 
sanguinis met. . . . This has been defined by a decree of the 
Council of Florence (1489): ‘‘ Quod illa uerba diuina Salu- 
atoris omnem uirtutem transsubstantiationis habent.’’ (These 
divine words of Our Saviour have full power to effect tran- 
substantiation.) But the Orthodox Church holds that an 
Kpiklesis is necessary to valid consecration, the actual 


148 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


6 


words of Our Lord being repeated “as a narrative” 
[Seyynuarixes],233 which would seem logically to imply that 
Christ’s words have no part in the form of the Sacrament. 
In all Orthodox liturgies the words of Consecration are found 
together with the Epiklesis, and there are in existence some few 
liturgies, plainly invalid, which omit the words of Consecra- 
tion altogether. These are all of them forms which have been 
employed by heretical sects ; and it may be that the Templars 
used one of these. But it is far more probable that the words 
were purposely omitted ; the Templars were corroded with 
Gnostic doctrines, they held the heresies of the Mandzans 
or Johannites who were filled with an insane hatred of Christ 
in much the same way as witches and demonolaters, they 
followed the tenets of the Ophites who venerated the Serpent 
and prayed to him for protection against the Creator, they 
adored and offered sacrifice before an idol, a Head, which, as 
Professor Prutz holds, represented the lower god whom 
Gnostic bodies worshipped, that is Satan. At his trial in 
Tuscany the knight Bernard of Parma confessed that the 
Order firmly believed this idol had the power to save and to 
enrich, in fine, flat diabolism. The secret mass of the Templars 
may have burlesqued an Eastern liturgy rather than the 
Western rite, but none the less it was the essential cult of the 
evil principle. 

In 1336 a priest who had been imprisoned by the Comte de 
Foix, Gaston III Phébus, on a charge of celebrating a Satanic 
mass, was sent to Avignon and examined by Benedict XII 
in person. The next year the same pontiff appointed his 
trusty Guillaume Lombard to preside at the trial of Pierre 
du Chesne, a priest from the diocese of Tarbes, accused of 
defiling the Host. 

Gilles de Sillé, a priest of the diocese of S. Malo, and the 
Florentine Antonio Francesco Prelati, formerly of the diocese 
of Arezzo, were wont to officiate at the black masses of 
Tiffauges and Machecoul, the castles of Gilles de Rais, who 
was executed in 1440. 

A priest named Benedictus in the sixteenth century caused 
great scandal by the discovery of his assistance at secret and 
unhallowed rites. Charles [IX employed an apostate monk 
to celebrate the eucharist of hell before himself and his 
intimates, and during the reign of his brother the Bishop of 


THE SABBAT 149 


Paris burned in the Place de Gréve a friar named Séchelle 
who had been found guilty of participating in similar profane 
mysteries. In 1597 the Parliament of Paris sentenced Jean 
Belon, curé of S. Pierre-des-Lampes in the Bourges diocese, 
to be hanged and his body burned for desecration of the 
Sacrament and the repeated celebration of abominable cere- 
monies.144 The Parliament of Bordeaux in 1598 condemned 
to the stake Pierre Aupetit, curé of Pageas, near Chalus 
Limousin. He confessed that for more than twenty years 
he had frequented Sabbats, especially those held at Mathe- 
goutte and Puy-de-Déme, where he worshipped the Devil 
and performed impious masses in his honour.445 August 14, 
1606, a friar named Denobilibus was put to death at Grenoble 
upon a similar conviction. In 1609 the Parliament of 
Bordeaux sent Pierre De Lancre and d’Espagnet to Labourd 
in the Bayonne district to stamp out the sorcerers who 
infested that region. No less than seven priests were arrested 
on charges of celebrating Satan’s mass at the Sabbat. Two, 
Migalena, an old man of seventy, and Pierre Bocal, aged 
twenty-seven, were executed, but the Bishop of Bayonne 
interfered, claimed the five for his own tribunal and contrived 
that they should escape from prison. Three other priests 
who were under restraint were immediately set free, and 
wisely quitted the country. A twelvemonth later Aix and 
the whole countryside rang with the confessions of Madeleine 
de la Palud who “Dit aussi que ce malheureux Loys 
magicien . . . a controuvé le premier de dire la messe au 
sabatt et consacrer Véritablement et présenter le sacrifice A 
Lucifer.”’46 It was, of course, mere ignorance on her part to 
suppose that “‘ that accursed Magician Lewes did first inuent 
the saying of Masse at the Sabbaths,” although Gaufridi may 
have told her this to impress her with a sense of his importance 
and power among the hierarchies of evil. Certainly in her 
evidence the details of the Sabbat worship are exceptionally 
detailed and complete. 

They are, however, amply paralleled, if not exceeded, by 
the narrative of Madeleine Bavent, a Franciscan sister of the 
Third Order, attached to the convent of SS. Louis and 
Elizabeth at Louviers. Her confessions, which she wrote at 
length by the direction of her confessor, des Marets, an 
Oratorian, meticulously describe scenes of the most hideous 


150 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


blasphemy in which were involved three chaplains, David, 
Maturin Picard, the curé of Mesnil-Jourdain, and Thomas 
Boullé, sometime his assistant. Amongst other enormities 
they had revived the heresy of the Adamites, an early Gnostic 
sect, and celebrated the Mass in a state of stark nudity amid 
circumstances of the grossest indecency. Upon one Good 
Friday Picard and Boullé had compelled her to defile the 
crucifix and to break a consecrated Host, throwing the 
fragments upon the ground and trampling them. David 
and Picard were dead, but Boullé was burned at Rouen, 
21 August, 1647.11? 

During the reign of Louis XIV a veritable epidemic of 
sacrilege seemed to rage throughout Paris.14* The horrors of 
the black mass were said in many houses, especially in that 
of La Voisin (Catherine Deshayes) who lived in the rue Beau- 
regard. The leading spirit of this crew was the infamous 
abbé Guibourg, a bastard son—so gossip said—of Henri 
de Montmorency. With him were joined Brigallier, almoner 
of the Grande Mademoiselle; Bouchot, director of the 
convent of La Saussaye; Dulong, a canon of Notre-Dame ; 
Dulausens, vicar of Saint-Leu; Dubousquet; Seysson ; 
Dussis; Lempérier; Lépreux; Davot, vicar of Notre- 
Dame de Bonne-Nouvelle; Mariette, vicar of Saint-Séverin, 
skilled in maledictions ; Lemeignan, vicar of Saint-Eustache, 
who was convicted of having sacrificed numberless children 
to Satan; Toumet; Le France; Cotton, vicar of St. Paul, 
who had baptized a baby with the chrism of Extreme Unction 
and then throttled him upon the altar; Guignard and 
Sébault of the diocese of Bourges, who officiated at the black 
mass in the cellars of a house at Paris, and confected filthy 
charms under conditions of the most fearful impiety. 

In the eighteenth century the black mass persisted. In 
1728 the police arrested the abbé Lecollet and the abbé 
Bournement for this profanity; and in 1745 the abbé de 
Rocheblanche fell under the same suspicion. At the hotel 
of Madame de Charolais the vilest scenes of the Sabbat were 
continued. A gang of Satanists celebrated their monstrous 
orgies at Paris on 22 January, 1793, the night after the murder 
of Louis XVI. The abbé Fiard in two of his works, Lettres 
sur le diable, 1791, and La France Trompée .. « Paris, 8vo, 
1803, conclusively shows that eucharistic blasphemies were 


THE SABBAT 151 


yet being perpetrated but in circumstances of almost 
impenetrable secrecy. In 1865 a scandal connected with 
these abominations came to light, and the Bishop of Sens, in 
whose diocese it occurred, was so horrified that he resigned 
his office and retired to Fontainebleau, where he died some 
eighteen months later, practically of shock. Similar practices 
were unmasked at Paris in 1874 and again in 1878, whilst it 
is common knowledge that the characters of Joris Karl 
Huysmans’ La-Bas were all persons easy of identification, 
and the details are scenes exactly reproduced from con- 
temporary life.14® The hideous cult of evil yet endures. 
Satanists yet celebrate the black mass in London, Brighton, 
Paris, Lyons, Bruges, Berlin, Milan, and alas! in Rome 
itself. Both South America and Canada are thus polluted. 
In many a town, both great and small, they have their dens 
of blasphemy and evil where they congregate unsuspected 
to perform these execrable rites. Often they seem to con- 
centrate their vile energies in the quiet cathedral cities of 
England, France, Italy, in vain endeavour to disturb the 
ancient homes of peace with the foul brabble of devil-worship 
and all ill. 

They have even been brought upon the public stage. One 
episode of Un Soir de Folie, the revue (1925-6) at the Folies 
Bergére, Paris, was ‘“‘ Le Sabbat et la Herse Infernale,”’ 
where in a Gothic cathedral an actor (Mons. Benglia) 
appeared as Satan receiving the adoration of his devotees. 

At the more frequented Sabbats the ritual of Holy Mass 
was elaborately burlesqued in almost every detail. An altar 
was erected with four supports, sometimes under a sheltering 
tree, at others upon a flat rock, or some naturally convenient 
place, ‘‘auprés d’vn arbre, ou parfois auprés d’vn rocher, 
dressant quelque forme d’autel sur des colonés infernales,”’ 
says De Lancre.!2® In more recent times and to-day when 
the black mass is celebrated in houses such an altar is often 
permanent and therefore the infernal sanctuary can be 
builded with a display of the full symbolism of the hideous 
cult of evil. The altar was covered with the three linen 
cloths the ritual enjoins, and upon it were six black candles 
in the midst of which they placed a crucifix inverted, or an 
image of the Devil. Sometimes the Devil himself occupied 
this central position, standing erect, or seated on some kind 


152 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


of monstrous throne. In 1598, at a celebrated witch-trial 
before the Parliament of Bordeaux with the Vicar-general 
of the Bishop of Limoges and a learned councillor Peyrat as 
assessors, Antoine Dumons of Saint-Laurent confessed that 
he had frequently provided a large number of candles for 
the Sabbat, both wax lights to be distributed among those 
- present and the large black tapers for the altar. These were 
lit by Pierre Aupetit, who held a sacristan’s reed, and 
apparently officiated as Master of the Ceremonies when he 
was not actually himself saying the Mass.121 

In May, 1895, when the legal representatives of the 
Borghese family visited the Palazzo Borghese, which had 
been rented for some time in separate floors or suites, they 
found some difficulty in obtaining admission to certain 
apartments on the first floor, the occupant of which seemed 
unaware that the lease was about to expire. By virtue of 
the terms of the agreement, however, he was obliged to allow 
them to inspect the premises to see if any structural repairs 
or alterations were necessary, as Prince Scipione Borghese, 
who was about to be married, intended immediately to take 
up his residence in the ancestral home with his bride. One 
door the tenant obstinately refused to unlock, and when 
pressed he betrayed the greatest confusion. The agents 
finally pointed out that they were within their rights to 
employ actual force, and that if access was longer denied they 
would not hesitate to do so forthwith. When the keys had 
been produced, the cause of the reluctance was soon plain. 
The room within was inscribed with the words Templum 
Palladicum. The walls were hung all round from ceiling to 
floor with heavy curtains of silk damask, scarlet and black, 
excluding the light; at the further end there stretched a 
large tapestry upon which was woven in more than life-size 
a figure of Lucifer, colossal, triumphant, dominating the 
whole. Exactly beneath an altar had been built, amply 
furnished for the liturgy of hell: candles, vessels, rituals, 
missal, nothing was lacking. Cushioned prie-dieus and 
luxurious chairs, crimson and gold, were set in order for the 
assistants ; the chamber being lit by electricity, fantastically 
arrayed so as to glare from an enormous human eye. The 
visitors soon quitted the accursed spot, the scene of devil- 
worship and blasphemy, nor had they any desire mere 


THE SABBAT 153 


nearly to examine the appointments of this infernal 
chapel.}?? 

The missal used at the black mass was obviously a manu- 
script, although it is said that in later times these grimoires 
of hideous profanity have actually been printed. It is not 
infrequently mentioned. Thus De Lancre notes that the 
sorcerers of the Basses-Pyrénées (1609) at their worship saw 
the officiant ‘“‘ tournant les feuillets d’vn certain liure qu’il 
a en main.’’!23 Madeleine Bavent in her confession said: 
‘’ On lisait la messe dans le livre des blasphémes, qui servait 
de canon et qu’on employait aussi dans les processions.’’!24 
The witches’ missal was often bound in human skin, generally 
that of an unbaptized babe.!25 Gentien le Clerc, tried at 
Orleans, 1614-1615, confessed that ‘‘ le Diable . . . marmote 
dans un liure duquel la couuerture est toute velué comme 
d’vne peau de loup, auec des feuillets blancs & rouges, 
d’autres noires.”’ 

The vestments worn by the celebrant are variously 
described. On rare occasions he is described as being arrayed 
in a bishop’s pontificalia, black in hue, torn, squalid, and fusty. 
Boguet reports that a witch stated: ‘‘ Celuy, qui est commis 
a faire l’office, est reuestu d’vne chappe noire sans croix,’’}26 
but it seems somewhat strange that merely a plain black 
cope should be used, unless the explanation is to be found 
in the fact that such a vestment was most easily procurable 
and no suspicion of its ultimate employment would be 
excited. The abbé Guibourg sometimes wore a cope of white 
silk embroidered with fir-cones, which again seems remark- 
able, as the symbolism is in no way connected with the 
Satanic rites he performed. But this is the evidence of 
Marguerite, La Voisin’s daughter, who was not likely to be 


mistaken.!27_ It is true that the mass was often, perhaps, . 


partially erotic and not wholly diabolic in the same sense as’ 


the Sabbat masses were, but yet Astaroth, Asmodeus, and 
Lucifer were invoked, and it was a liturgy of evil. On other 
occasions Guibourg seems to have donned the orthodox 
eucharistic chasuble, stole, maniple, girdle, alb, and amice. 
In the thirty-seventh article of his confession Gaufridi 
acknowledged that the priest who said the Devil’s mass at 
the Sabbat wore a violet chasuble.!28 Gentien le Clerc, tried 
at Orleans in 1614-1615, was present at a Sabbat mass when 


154 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


the celebrant ‘‘ wore a chasuble which was embroidered with 
a Cross; but there were only three bars.”’1*® Later a 
contemporary witness points to the use of vestments em- 
broidered with infernal insignia, such as a dark red chasuble, 
the colour of dried blood, upon which was figured a black 
buck goat rampant; a chasuble that bore the inverse Cross, 
and similar robes adorned by some needle with the heraldry 
of hell. 

In bitter mockery of the Asperges the celebrant sprinkled 
the witches with filthy and brackish water, or even with 
stale. ‘‘ The Devil at the same time made water into a hole 
dug in the earth, & used it as holy water, wherewith the 
celebrant of the mass sprinkled all present, using a black 
aspergillum.’’!°° Silvain Nevillon, a sorcerer who was tried at 
Orleans in 1614-1615, said: ‘‘ When Tramesabot said Mass, 
before he commenced he used to sprinkle all present with 
holy water which was nothing else than urine, saying mean- 
while Asperges Diaboli.”*1_ According to Gentien le Clerc: 
‘“The holy water is yellow... & after it has been duly 
sprinkled Mass is said.’’!82_ Madeleine de la Palud declared 
that the sorcerers were sprinkled with water, and also with 
consecrated wine from the chalice upon which all present cried 
aloud: Sanguis eius super nos et super filios nostros.133 (His 
~ blood be upon us and upon our children.) 

This foul travesty of the holiest mysteries began with an 
invocation of the Devil, which was followed by a kind of 
general confession, only each one made mock acknowledge- 
ment of any good he might have done, and as a penance he 
was enjoined to utter some foul blasphemy or to break some 
precept of the Church. The president absolved the con- 
gregation by an inverse sign of the Cross made with the left 
hand. The rite then proceeded with shameless profanity, 
but De Lancre remarks that the Confiteor was never said, 
not even in a burlesque form, and Alleluia never pronounced. 
After reciting the Offertory the celebrant drew back a little 
from the altar and the assembly advancing in file kissed his 
left hand. When the Queen of the Sabbat—the witch who 
ranked first after the Grand Master, the oldest and most evil 
of the witches (‘‘en chasque village,’ says De Lancre, 
‘“‘trouuer vne Royne du Sabbat’’)—was present she sat on 
the left of the altar and received the offerings, loaves, eggs, 


THE SABBAT 155 


any meat or country produce, and money, so long as the 
coins were not stamped with a cross. In her hand she held 
a dise or plate “‘ vne paix ou platine,”’ engraved with a figure 
of the Devil, and this his followers devoutly kissed. In many 
places to-day, especially Belgium, during Holy Mass the 
pax-brede (instrumentum pacis) is kissed by the congregation 
at the Offertory, and universally when Mass is said by a 
priest in the presence of a Prelate the pax-brede is kissed 
by the officiant and the Prelate after the Agnus Dei and the 
first appropriate ante-communion prayer. 

Silvain Nevillon, who was tried at Orleans in 1614-15, 
avowed: ‘‘ The Devil preached a sermon at the Sabbat, but 
nobody could hear what he said, for he spoke in a growl.’’!*4 

At the Sabbat a sermon is not infrequently delivered, a 
farrago of impiety and evil counsel. 

The hosts are then brought to the altar. Boguet describes 
them as dark and round, stamped with a hideous design ; 
Madeleine Bavent saw them as ordinary wafers only coloured 
red; in other cases they were black and triangular in shape. 
Often they blasphemed the Host, calling it ‘‘ Tean le blane,”’ 
just as Protestants called it ‘‘ Jack-in-the-box.’’ The chalice 
is filled, sometimes with wine, sometimes with a bitter 
beverage that burned the tongue like fire. At the Sanctus 
a horn sounded harshly thrice, and torches burning with a 
sulphurous blue flare ‘‘ qui est fort puante’’ were kindled. 
There was an elevation, at which the whole gang, now in a 
state of hysterical excitement and unnatural exaltation, 
burst forth with the most appalling screams and maniac 
blasphemies, rivalling each other in filthy adjurations and 
crapulous obscenities. The protagonist poured out all the 
unbridled venom that diabolic foulness could express, a 
stream of scurrility and pollution; hell seemed to have 
vomited its reeking gorge on earth. Domine adiuua nos, 
domine adiuua nos, they cried to the Demon, and again 
Domine adiuua nos semper. Generally all present were com- 
pelled to communicate with the sacrament of the pit, to 
swallow morsels soiled with mud and ordures, to drink the 
dark brew of damnation. Gaufridi confessed that for Ite 
missa est these infernal orgies concluded with the curse: 
‘* Allez-vous-en tous au nom du diable!’’ Whilst the abbé 
Guibourg cried: “ Gloria tibi, Lucifero !” 


156 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


The black mass of the Sabbat varied slightly in form 
according to circumstances, and in the modern liturgy of the 
Satanists it would appear that a considerable feature is made 
of the burning of certain heavy and noxious weeds, the 
Devil’s incense. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries 
the use of incense is very rare at the Sabbat, although Silvain 
Nevillon stated that he had seen at the Sabbat ‘‘ both holy 
water and incense. This latter smelled foul, not fragrant as 
incense burned in church.’’!35 

The officiant nowadays consecrates a host and the chalice 
with the actual sacred words of Holy Mass, but then instead 
of kneeling he turns his back upon the altar,18° and a few 
moments later—sit uenia uerbis!—he cuts and stabs the 
Host with a knife, throwing it to the ground, treading upon 
it, spurning it. A part, at least, of the contents of the chalice 
is also spilled in fearful profanation, and not infrequently there 
further has been provided a ciborium of consecrated Hosts, 
all stolen from churches!’ or conveyed away at Communion 
in their mouths by wretches unafraid to provoke the sudden 
judgement of an outraged God. These the black priest, for 
so the celebrant is called by the Devil worshippers, scatters 
over the pavement to be struggled and fought for by his 
congregation in their madness to seize and outrage the 
Body of Christ. 

Closely connected with the black mass of the Satanists 
and a plain survival from the Middle Ages is that grim 
superstition of the Gascon peasant, the Mass of S. Sécaire.138 
Few priests know the awful ritual, and of those who are 
learned in such dark lore fewer yet would dare to perform 
the monstrous ceremonies and utter the prayer of blasphemy. 
No confessor, no bishop, not even the Archbishop of Auch, 
may shrive the celebrant ; he can only be absolved at Rome 
by the Holy Father himself. The mass is said upon a broken 
and desecrated altar in some ruined or deserted church where 
owls hoot and mope and bats flit through the crumbling 
windows, where toads spit their venom upon the sacred stone. 
The priest must make his way thither late attended only by 
an acolyte of impure and evil life. At the first stroke of 
eleven he begins; the liturgy of hell is mumbled backward, 
the canon said with a mow and a sneer; he ends just as 
midnight tolls, The host is triangular, with three sharp 


THE SABBAT 157 


points and black. No wine is consecrated but foul brackish 
water drawn from a well wherein has been cast the body of 
an unbaptized babe. The holy sign of the cross is made 
with the left foot upon the ground. And the man for whom 
that mass is said will slowly pine away, nor doctor’s skill nor 
physic will avail him aught, but he will suffer, and dwindle, 
and surely drop into the grave.18° 

Although there is, no doubt, some picturesque exaggeration 
here the main details are correct enough. A black, triangular 
wafer is not infrequently mentioned in the witch-trials as 
having been the sacramental bread of the Sabbat, whilst 
Lord Fountainhall’?° in describing the devilish communion 
of the Loudian witches says: ‘“‘ the drink was sometimes 
blood, sometimes black moss-water,’’ and many other details 
may be closely paralleled. 

When the blasphemous liturgy of the Sabbat was done all 
present gave themselves up to the most promiscuous de- 
bauchery, only interrupting their lasciviousness to dance or 
to spur themselves on to new enormities by spiced foods 
and copious draughts of wine. ‘‘ You may well suppose,”’ 
writes Boguet, ‘‘ that every kind of obscenity is practised 
there, yea, even those abominations for which Heaven poured 
down fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah are quite 
common in these assemblies.’’!41_ The erudite Dominican, 
Father Sebastian Michaelis, who on the 19 January, 1611, 
examined Madeleine de la Palud concerning her participation 
in Sabbats, writes!4? that she narrated the most unhallowed 
orgies.148 ‘The imagination reels before such turpitudes ! 
But Madeleine Bavent (1643) supplied even more execrable 
details.144 Gentien le Clere at Orleans (1614-1615) acknow- 
ledged similar debauchery.14° Bodin relates that a large 
number of witches whom he tried avowed their presence at the 
Sabbat.14® In 1459 ‘‘ large numbers of men & women were 
burned at Arras, many of whom had mutually accused one 
another, & they cenfessed that at night they had been 
conveyed to these hellish dances.’’!47 In 1485 Sprenger 
executed a large number of sorcerers in the Constance dis- 
trict, and “‘ almost all without exception confessed that the 
Devil had had connexion with them, after he had made them 
renounce God and their holy faith.’!48 Many converted 
witches likewise confessed these abominations “‘ and let it be 


158 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


known that whilst they were witches demons had swived them 
lustily. Henry of Cologne in confirmation of this says that 
it is very common in Germany.’’!4° Throughout the cen-. 
turies all erudite authorities have the same monstrous tale 
to tell, and it would serve no purpose merely to accumulate 
evidence from the demonologists. To-day the meetings of 
Satanists invariably end in unspeakable orgies and hideous 
debauchery. 

Occasionally animals were sacrificed at the Sabbat to the 
Demon. ‘The second charge against Dame Alice Kyteler, 
prosecuted in 1824 for sorcery by Richard de Ledrede, Bishop 
of Ossory, was ‘‘ that she was wont to offer sacrifices to 
devils of live animals, which she and her company tore limb 
from limb and made oblation by scattering them at the 
cross-ways to a certain demon who was called Robin, son 
of Artes (Robin Artisson), one of hell’s lesser princes.’’?°° 

In 1622 Margaret McWilliam ‘‘ renounced her baptisme, 
and he baptised her and she gave him as a gift a hen or 
cock.’’151 In the Voodoo rites of to-day a cock is often the 
animal which is hacked to pieces before the fetish. Black 
puppies were sacrificed to Hecate; Aineas offers four jetty 
bullocks to the infernal powers, a coal-black lamb to Night ;1°? 
at their Sabbat on the Esquiline Canidia and Sagana tear 
limb from limb a black sheep, the blood streams into a 
trench.153 Collin de Planey states that witches sacrifice 
black fowls and toads to the Devil.154 The animal victim 
to a power worshipped as divine is a relic of remotest 
antiquity. 

The presence of toads at the Sabbat is mentioned in many 
witch-trials. They seem to have been associated with 
sorcerers owing to the repugnance they generally excite, and 
in some districts it is a common superstition that those whom 
they regard fixedly will be seized with palpitations, spasms, 
convulsions, and swoons: nay, a certain abbé Rousseau 
of the eighteenth century, who experimented with toads, 
avowed that when one of these animals looked upon him 
for some time he fell in a fainting fit whence, if help had not 
arrived, he would never have recovered.?®5> A number of 
writers—Aélian, Dioscorides, Nicander, Attius, Gesner— 
believe that the breath of the toad is poisonous, infecting 
the places it may touch. Since such idle stories were credited 


THE SABBAT 159 


it is hardly to be surprised at that we find the toad a close 
companion of the witch. De Lancre says that demons often 
appeared in that shape. Jeannette d’Abadie, a witch of the 
Basses-Pyrénées, whom he tried and who confessed at length, 
declared that she saw brought to the Sabbat a number of 
toads dressed some in black, some in scarlet velvet, with little 
bells attached to their coats. In November, 1610, a man 
walking through the fields near Bazas, noticed that his dog 
had scratched a large hole in a bank and unearthed two pots, 
covered with cloth, and closely tied. When opened they were 
found to be packed with bran, and in the midst of each was 
a large toad wrapped in green tiffany. These doubtless had 
been set there by a person who had faith in sympathetic 
magic, and was essaying a malefic spell. No doubt toads 
were caught and taken to the Sabbat, nor is the reason far 
to seek. Owing to their legendary venom they served as a 
prime ingredient in poisons and potions, and were also used 
for telling fortunes, since witches often divined by their toad 
familiars. Juvenal alludes to this when he writes : 


«J neither will, nor can Prognosticate 
To the young gaping Heir, his Father’s Fate 
Nor in the Entrails of a Toad have pry’d.’’156 


Upon which passage Thomas Farnabie, the celebrated English 
scholar (1575-1647) glosses thus: ‘‘ He alludes to the office of 
the Haruspex who used to inspect entrails & intestines. Pliny 
says: The entrails of the toad (Rana rubeta), that is to say the 
tongue, tiny bones, gall, heart, have rare virtue for they are 
used in many medicines and salves. Haply he means the pud- 
dock or hop-toad, thus demonstrating that these animals are 
not poisonous, their entrails being completely inefficacious in 
confecting poisons.”’15? In 1610 Juan de Echalar, a sorcerer 
of Navarre, confessed at his trial before the Alcantarine 
inquisitor Don Alonso Becerra Holguin that he and his coven 
collected toads for the Sabbat, and when they presented these 
animals to the Devil he blessed them with his left hand, after 
which they were killed and cooked in a stewpot with human 
bones and pieces of corpses rifled from new-made graves. 
From this filthy hotch-potch were brewed poisons and 
unguents that the Devil distributed to all present with 
directions how to use them. By sprinkling corn with the 


160 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


liquid it was supposed they could blight a standing field, 
and also destroy flowers and fruit. A few drops let fall upon 
a person’s garments was believed to insure death, and a 
smear upon the shed or sty effectually diseased cattle. From 
these crude superstitions the fantastic stories of dancing 
toads, toads dressed en cavalier, and demon toads at the 
Sabbat were easily evolved. 

There is ample andcontinuousevidencethat children, usually 
tender babes who were as yet unbaptized, were sacrificed at 
the Sabbat. These were often the witches’ own offspring, 
and since a witch not unseldom was the midwife or wise- 
woman of a village she had exceptional opportunities of 
stifling a child at birth as a non-Sabbatial victim to Satan. 
‘‘ There are no persons who can do more cunning harm to the 
Catholic faith than midwives,” says the Malleus Maleficarum, 
Pars I, q. xi: ‘‘ Nemo fidei catholice amplius nocet quam 
obstetrices.”’ The classic examples of child-sacrifice are those 
of Gilles de Rais (1440) and the abbé Guibourg (1680). In 
the process against the former one hundred and forty children 
are explicitly named: some authorities accept as many as 
eight hundred victims. Their blood, brains, and bones were 
used to decoct magic philtres. In the days of Guibourg the 
sacrifice of a babe at the impious mass was so common that 
he generally paid not more than a crown-piece for his victim. 
‘* Tl avait acheté un écu l’enfant qui fut sacrifié a cette messe.”’ 
(‘‘ The child sacrificed at this mass he had bought for a 
crown.’’) These abominable ceremonies were frequently per- 
formed at the instance of Madame de Montespan in order 
that Louis XIV should always remain faithful to her, should 
reject all other mistresses, repudiate his queen, and in fine 
raise her to the throne.1®& The most general use was to cut 
the throat of the child, whose blood was drained into the 
chalice and allowed to fall upon the naked flesh of the 
inquirer, who lay stretched along the altar. La Voisin 
asserted that a toll of fifteen hundred infants had been thus 
murdered. This is not impossible, as a vast number of 
persons, including a crowd of ecclesiastics, were implicated. 
Many of the greatest names in France had assisted at these 
orgies of blasphemy. From first to last no less than two 
hundred and forty-six men and women of all ranks and 
grades of society were brought to trial, and whilst thirty-six 


THE SABBAT 161 


of humbler station went to the scaffold, one hundred and 
forty-seven were imprisoned for longer or shorter terms, not 
a few finding it convenient to leave the country, or, at any 
rate, to obscure themselves in distant chateaux. But many 
of the leaves had been torn out of the archives, and Louis 
himself forbade any mention of his favourite’s name in 
connexion with these prosecutions. However, she was 
disgraced, and it is not surprising that after the death of 
Maria Teresa, 81 July, 1683, the king early in the following 
year married the pious and conventual Madame de Main- 
tenon. 

Ludovico Maria Sinistrari writes that witches ‘‘ promise 
the Devil sacrifices and offerings at stated times: once a 
fortnight, or at least each month, the murder of some child, 
or an homicidal act of sorcery,” and again and again in the 
trials detailed accusation of the kidnapping and murder of 
children are brought against the prisoners. In the same way 
as the toad was used for magical drugs so was the fat of the 
child. The belief that corpses and parts of corpses constitute 
a most powerful cure and a supreme ingredient in elixirs is 
universal and of the highest antiquity. The quality of 
directly curing diseases and of protection has long been 
attributed to a cadaver. Tumours, eruptions, gout, are 
dispelled if the afflicted member be stroked with a dead 
hand.1°® Toothache is charmed away if the face be touched 
with the finger of a dead child.1®° Birthmarks vanish under 
the same treatment.!®! Burns, carbuncles, the herpes, and 
other skin complaints, fearfully prevalent in the Middle Ages, 
could be cured by contact with some part of a corpse. In 
Pomerania the “ cold corpse hand” is a protection against 
fire,‘®2 and Russian peasants believe that a dead hand 
protects from bullet wounds and steel.1®° It was long thought 
by the ignorant country folk that the doctors of the hospital 
of Graz enjoyed the privilege of being allowed every year 
to exploit one human life for curative purposes. Some young 
man who repaired thither for toothache or any such slight 
ailment is seized, hung up by the feet, and tickled to death ! 
Skilled chemists boil the body to a paste and utilize this as 
well as the fat and the charred bones in their drug store. 
The people are persuaded that about Easter a youth annually 
disappears in the hospital for these purposes.164 This 

M 


162 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


tradition is, perhaps, not unconnected with the Jewish ritual 
sacrifices of S. William of Norwich (1144); Harold of Glou- 
cester (1168); William of Paris (1177); Robert of Bury 
S. Edmunds (1181); S. Werner of Oberwesel (1286) ; 
S. Rudolph of Berne (1294); S. Andreas of Rinn (1462) ; 
S. Simon of Trent, a babe of two and a half years old (1478) ; 
Simon Abeles, whose body lies in the Teyn Kirche at Prague, 
murdered for Christ’s sake on 21 February, 1694, by Lazarus 
and Levi Kurtzhandel; El santo Nifio de la Guardia, near 
Toledo (1490), and many more.?®® 

The riots which have so continually during three centuries 
broken out in China against Europeans, and particularly 
against Catholic asylums for the sick, foundling hospitals, 
schools, are almost always fomented by an intellectual party 
who begin by issuing fiery appeals to the populace: “‘ Down 
with the missionaries! Kull the foreigners! They steal or 
buy our children and slaughter them, in order to prepare 
magic remedies and medicines out of their eyes, hearts, and 
from other portions of their dead bodies.’? Baron Hiibner 
in his Promenade autour du monde, II (Paris, 1878) tells the 
story of the massacre at Tientsin, 21 June, 1870, and relates 
that it was engineered on these very lines. In 1891 similar 
risings against Europeans resident in China were found to 
be due to the same cause. Towards the end of 1891 a 
charge was brought in Madagascar against the French 
that they devoured human hearts and for this purpose 
kidnapped and killed native children. Stern legislation was 
actually found necessary to check the spread of these 
accusations.1% 

In the Navarrese witch-trials of 1610 Juan de Echelar 
confessed that a candle had been used made from the arm 
of an infant strangled before baptism. The ends of the 
fingers had been lit, and burned with a clear flame, a *‘ Hand 
of Glory” in fact. At Forfar, in 1661, Helen Guthrie and 
four other witches exhumed the body of an unbaptized babe 
and made portions into a pie which they ate. They imagined 
that by this means no threat nor torture could bring them 
to confession of their sorceries. This, of course, is clearly 
sympathetic magic. The tongue of the infant had never 
spoken articulate words, and so the tongues of the witches 
would be unable to articulate. 


THE SABBAT 163 


It is a fact seldom realized, but none the less of the deepest 
significance, that almost every detail of the old witch-trials 
can be exactly paralleled in Africa to-day. Thus there exists 
in Bantu a society called the ‘‘ Witchcraft Company,”’ whose 
members hold secret meetings at midnight in the depths of 
the forest to plot sickness and death against their enemies 
by means of incantations and spells. The owl is their sacred 
bird, and their signal call an imitation of its hoot. They 
profess to leave their corporeal bodies asleep in their huts, 
and it is only their spirit-bodies that attend the magic 
rendezvous, passing through walls and over the tree-tops 
with instant rapidity. At the meeting they have visible, 
audible, and tangible communication with spirits. They hold 
feasts, at which is eaten the ‘‘ heart-life’’ of some human 
being, who through this loss of his heart falls sick and, unless 
“the heart ’’ be later restored, eventually dies. Earliest 
cock-crow is the warning for them to disperse, since they fear 
the advent of the morning-star, as, should the sun rise upon 
them before they reach their corporeal bodies, all their plans 
would not merely fail, but recoil upon themselves, and they 
would pine and languish miserably. This hideous Society 
was introduced by black slaves to the West Indies, to Jamaica 
and Hayti, and also to the Southern States of America as 
Voodoo worship. Authentic records are easily procurable 
which witness that midnight meetings were held in Hayti 
as late as 1888, when human beings, especially kidnapped 
children, were killed and eaten at the mysterious and evil 
banquets. European government in Africa has largely 
suppressed the practice of the black art, but this foul belief 
still secretly prevails, and Dr. Norris!®’ is of opinion that 
were white influence withdrawn it would soon hold sway as 
potently as of old. 

A candid consideration will show that for every detail of 
the Sabbat, however fantastically presented and exaggerated 
in the witch-trials of so many centuries, there is ample 
warrant and unimpeachable evidence. There is some hallu- 
cination no doubt; there is lurid imagination, and vanity 
which paints the colours thick; but there is a solid stratum 
of fact, and very terrible fact throughout. 

And as the dawn broke the unhallowed crew separated in 
haste, and hurried each one on his way homewards, pale, 


164 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


weary, and haggard after the night of taut hysteria, frenzied 
evil, and vilest excess. 

‘Le coq s’oyt par fois és sabbats sonnat le retraicte aux 
Sorciers.”168 (The cock crows; the Sabbat ends; the 


Sorcerers scatter and flee away.) 


NOTES TO CHAPTER IV 


1 Omnia autem honeste et secundum ordinem fiant. 1 Cor. xiv. 40, 

2 Miss Murray, misled no doubt by the multiplicity of material, postulates 
two separate and distinct kinds of assemblies: Tho Sabbat, the General 
Meeting of all members of the religion; the Esbat ‘‘ only for the special and 
limited number who carried out the rites and practices of the cult, and 
[which] was not for the general public.” The Witch-Cult in Western Europe, . 
p. 97. Gérres had already pointed out that the smaller meetings were often 
known as Esbats. The idea of a ‘‘ general public’’ at a witches’ meeting 
is singular. 

3 On a voulu trouver l’etymologie du sabbat, réunion des sorciers, dans 
les sabazies ; mais la forme ne le permet pas; d’ailleurs comment, au moyen 
age aurait on connu les sabazies ? Saint-Croix, Recherches sur les mystéres 
du paganisme ; Maury, Histoire des religions de la Gréce antique. 

4 Metamorphoseon, VIII. 25. 

5 Miss Murray thinks that Sabbat ‘“‘is possibly a derivative of s’esbattre, 
‘to frolic,’’’? and adds ‘‘ a very suitable description of the joyous gaicty of 
the meetings’’!! 

6 Miss Murray mistakenly says (p. 109) that May Eve (30 April) is called 
Roodmas or Rood Day. Roodmas or Rood Day is 3 May, the Feast of the 
Invention of Holy Cross. An early English calendar (702-706) even gives 
7 May as Roodmas. The Invention of Holy Cross is found in the Lectionary 
of Silos and the Bobbio Missal. The date was not slightly altered. The 
Invention of Holy Cross is among the very early festivals. 

7 Especially in the North and North-East. Bavaria, Wurtemberg, and 
Baden, knew little of this particular date. 

8 Inthe Rituale we have ‘‘ Benedictio Rogi, que fit a Clero extra Ecclesiam 
in Uigilia Natiuitatis S. Joannis Baptiste. (Blessing of a pyre, which the 
Clergy may give on the Vigil of the Nativity of 8. John Baptist, but out- 
side the Church.) This form is especially approved for the Diocese of ‘Tarbes. 

® Relacion de las personas que salieron al auto de la fé que los inquisidores 
apostilicos del reino de Navarra y su distrito, celebraron en la ciudad De Logrono, . 
en 7 y 8 del mes de noviembre de 1610 avios, 1611. 

10 Discours des Sorciers, XXII. 12. Tertullian’s Diabolus simia Des. 

11 Idem, XX. 2. 

12 Tableau, p. 65. 

13 Les lieux des assemblées des Sorciers sont notables et signalez de quelques 
arbres, ou croix. Fleau, p. 181. 

14 Anthony Horneck; Appendix to Glanvill’s Sadducismus T'riumphatus. 
London, 1681. 

15 Locus in diuersis regionibus est diuersus; plerumque autem comitia 
in syluestribus, montanis, uel subterraneis atque ab hominum conuersatione 
dissitis locis habentur. Mela. Lib. 3. cap. 44. montem Atlantem nominat ; 
de Vaulx Magus Stabuleti decollatus, fatebatur 1603, in Hollandia congrega- 
tionem frequentissimam fuisse in Ultraiectine ditionis aliquo loco. Nobis 
ab hoc conuentu notus atq; notatus mons Bructerorum, Meliboeus alias 
dictus in ducatu Brunsuicensi, uulgo der Blocksberg oder Heweberg, Peucero, 
der Brockersberg, & Tilemanno Stelle, der Vogelsberg, perhibente Ortelio 
in Thesauro Geographico. For the Bructeri see Tacitus, Germania, 33: Velleius 
Paterculus, II, 105, i. Bructera natio, Tacitus, Historie, 1V, 61. 

16. . . le lieu ot on le trouue ordinairement s’appelle Lanne de bouc, 
& en Basque Aquelarre de verros, prado del Cabron, & 1a des Sorciers 


THE SABBAT 165 


le vont adorer trois nuicts durant, celle du Lundy, du Mercredy, & du 
Vendredy. De Lancre, Jableau, p. 62. 

17 Boguet, Discours des Sorciers, p. 124. 

18 A Pleasant Treatise of Witches, London, 1673. 

19 Psalm xc. 

20 Conuentus, ut plurimum ineuntur uel noctis medie silentio, quando 
uiget potestas tenebrarum ; uel interdiu meridie, quo sunt qui referant illud 
Psalmistz notum de demonio meridiano. Noctes frequentiores, que feriam 
tertiam et sextam precedunt. Delrio, Disquisitiones Magice, Lib. II. xvi. 

*1 Discours, XIX. 1. ‘‘ The Sorcerers assemble at the Sabbat about 
midnight.”’ 

22 Her indictment consists of fifty-three points. 

23 Spottiswoode’s Practicks. 

24 Spalding Club, Miscellany, I. 

25 MS. formerly in the possession of Michael Stewart Nicolson, Esq. 

26, , . jeme trouvais transporté au lieu ot le Sabatt se tenait, y demeurant 
quelquefois une, deux, trois, quatre heures pour le plus souvent suivant 
les affections. 

27 Ferunt uagantes Demonas 
Leetas tenebras noctium 
Gallo canente exterritos 
Sparsim timere et credere. 


28 Nocturna lux uiantibus 

A nocte noctem segregans, 
Preco diei iam sonat, 
Iubarque solis euocat. 
Hoc nauta uires colligit, 
Pontique mitescunt freta : 
Hoc, ipsa petra Ecclesia, 
Canente, culpam diluit. 
Surgamus ergo strenue : 
Gallus iacentes excitat, 
Et somnolentos increpat, 
Gallus negantes arguit. 
Gallo canente, spes redit, 
fHgris salus refunditur, 
Mucro latronis conditur, 
Lapsis fides reuertitur. 

The translation in text is by Caswall, 1848. 

29 Tableau, p. 154. 
30 For London, see Dr. Johnson’s London (1738) : 
Prepare for death, if here at night you roam, 
And sign your will before you sup from home. 

In 1500 Paolo Capello, the Venetian Ambassador, wrote: ‘‘ Every night 
they find in Rome four or five murdered men, Prelates and so forth.”” During 
the reign of Philip IV (1621-1665) the streets of Madrid, noisome, unpaved, 
were only lit on the occasion of festal illuminations. 

31 1475-1546. 

32 Quando uadunt ad loca propinqua uadunt pedestres mutuo se inuicem 
inuitantes. De Strigibus, II. 

33 Les Sorciers neatmoins vont quelquefois de pied au Sabbat, ce qui leur 
aduient principalement, lors que le lieu ot ils font leur assemblée, n’est pas 
guieres eslongé de leur habitation. Discours, c. xvii. 

34 Enquis en quel lieu se tint le Sabbat le dernier fois qu’il y fut. 

Respond que ce fut vers Billeron 4 un Carroy qui est sur le chemin 
tendant aux Aix, Parroisse de Saincte Soulange, Iustice de ceans. 
Enquis de quelle fagon il y va. 
Respond qu’il y va de son pied. 
~ De Lancre, Tableau, pp. 803-805. 

85 Aussi vilain & abominable est au Sorcier d’y aller de son pied que 

d’y estre transporté de son consentement par le Diable. Tableau, p. 632. 


166 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


86 Sinclar, Satan’s Invisible World Discovered (Reprint 1875), VII. 

37 Idem, p. 25. 

38 Idem, pp. 175, 178. 

39 Tllud etiam non omittendum quod quedam scelerate mulieres retro 
post Satanam conuerse, demonum illusoribus et phantasmatibus seductz 
credunt se et profitentur nocturnis horis cum Diana paganorum dea et 
innumera multitudine mulierum equitare super quasdam bestias et multa 
terrarum spatia intempeste noctis silentio pertransire eiusque iussionibus 
uelut dominz obedire, et certis noctibus ad eius seruitium euocari. Minge, 
Patres Latini, CX XXII. 352. 

40 See Professor A. J. Clark’s note upon “ Flying Ointments.” Witch-Cult 
in Western Europe, pp. 279-280. 

41 Posset demon eas transferre sine unguento, et facit aliquando; sed 
unguento mauult uti uariis de causis. Aliquando quia timidiores sunt sage, 
ut audeant ; uel quia teneriores sunt ad horribilem illum Satane contactum 
in corpore assumpto ferendum; horum enim unctione sensum obstupefacit 
et miseris persuadet uim unguento inesse maximam. Alias autem id facit 
ut sacrosancta a Deo instituta sacramenta inimice adumbret, et per has 
quasi cerimonias suis orgiis reuerentiz et uenerationis aliquid conciliat. 
Delrio, Disquitiones magice, Liber II, q* xvi. 

42 In antiquity we have the case of Simon Magus, who was levitated in 
the presence of Nero and his court. 

43 Henri Boguet, the High Justice of the district of Saint-Claude, died in 
1616. The first edition (of the last rarity) of his Discours des Sorciers is Lyons, 
1602; second edition, Lyons 1608; but there is also a Paris issue, 1603. 
Pp. 64 and 104. 

44 Scot, Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584). Book III. p. 42. 

45 De Lancre, Tableau, p. 211. 

46 Thomas Wright, Proceedings against Dame Alice Kyteler, Camden 
Society. 1843. 

47 Cotton Mather, Wonders of the Invisible World, 1693. (Reprint, 1862. 
P. 158.) 

48 Quarterly Journal of Science, January, 1874. 

49 J, Godfrey Raupert, Modern Spiritism. 1904. Pp. 34, 35. See also 
Sir W. Barrett, On the Threshold of the Unseen, p. 70. 

50 Arthur Lillie, Modern Mystics and Modern Magic, 1894, pp. 74, 75. 

51 David Lewis, Life of S. John of the Cross (1897), pp. 73-4. 

52 See the Saint’s own letter (written in 1777) to the Bishop of Foggia. 
Lettere di S. Alfonso Maria de’ Liguori (Roma, 1887), II. 456 f. 

53 Philip Coghlan, 0o.P. Gemma Galgani (1923), p. 62. For fuller details 
see the larger biography by Padre Germano. 

54 Vie du B. Paul de la Croix. (French translation.) I. Book ii. c. 3. 

55 La Mystique Divine. Traduit par Sainte-Foi. V. viii. 17. p. 193. 

56 Giovanni Francesco Ponzinibio was a lawyer whose De Lamiis was 
published at Venice, 1523-4. It called forth a reply, Apologic tres aduersum 
Joannem Franciscum Ponzinibium Iurisperitum, Venice, 1525. The edition 
of De Lamiis I have used is Venice, 1584, in the Thesaurus Magnorum iuris 
consultorum. This reprint was met by Pefia’s answer and two treatises by 
Bartolomeo Spina, o.P. 

57 Rome, 1584. 

58 De modo quo localiter transferentur [sage] de loco ad locum... . 
Probatur quod possint malefici corporaliter transferri. 

5® An isti Sortilegi & Strigimage siue Lamiz uere & corporaliter deferantur 
a demone uel solum in spiritu ? De Sortilegiws, VII. 

60 Sum modo istius secunde opinionis quod deferantur in corpore. 

61 Doctrina multi eorum qui sequuti sunt Lutherum, & Melanctonem, 
tenuerent Sagas ad conuentus accedere animi duntaxat cogitatione, & 
diabolica illusione interesse, allegantes quod eorum corpora inuenta sunt 
spe numero eodem loco iacentia, nec inde mora fuisse, ad hoc illud pertinens 
quod est in uita D. Germani, de mulierculis conuiuantibus, vt uidebantur, & 
tamé dormierant dormientes. Huiusmodi mulierculas sepe numero decipi 


THE SABBAT 167 


certum est, sed semper ita fieri non probatur. . . . Altera, quam uerissimam 
esse duco, est, nonnunquam uere Sagas transferri a Demone de loco ad locum, 
hirco, uel alteri animali fantastico vt plurimum eas simul asportanti cor- 
poraliter, & conuentu nefario interesse, & hec sententia est multo communior 
Theologorum, imd & Lurisconsultorum Italie, Hispanie, & Germanize inter 
Catholicos; hoc idem tenent alii quam plurimi. Turrecremata super Gril- 
landum,! Remigius,? Petrus Damianus,’ Siluester Abulensis,* Caietanus® 
Alphonsus a Castro® Sixtus Senensis? Crespetus® Spineus® contra Ponzinibium, 
Ananias,!° & alii quam plurimi, quos breuitatis gratia omitto. Per Fratrem 
Franciscum Mariam Guaccium Ord. S. Ambrosti ad Nemus Medtiolani com- 
pilatum. Mediolani. Ex Collegii Ambrosiani Typographia. 1626. 

62 De Strigibus, II. I have used the reprint, 1669, which is given in the 
valuable collection appended to the Malleus Maleficarum of that date, 4 vols. 
4to. 

63 Ad quam congregationem seu ludum prefate pestiferee persone uadunt 
corporaliter & uigilantes acin propriis ear sensibus & quando uadunt ad loca 
propinqua uadunt pedestres mutuo se inuicem inuitantes. Si auté habent 
congregari in aliquo loco distanti tune deferuntur a diabolo, & quomodocunque 
uadant ad dictum locum siue pedibus suis siue adferantur a diabolo ueru est 
quod realiter et ueraciter & n6 phatastice, neque illusorii abnegant fidé 
catholicam, adorant diabolum, conculcant crucem, & plura nefandissima 
opprobria committunt contra sacratissimum Corpus Christi, ac alia plura 
spurcissima perpetrant cum ipso diabolo eis in specie humana apparenti, & 
se uiris succubum, mulieribus autem incubum exhibenti. 

64 George Gandillon, la nuict d’vn Ieudy Sainct, demeura dans son lict, 
comme mort, pour l’espace de trois heures, & puis reuint 4 soy en sursaut. 
Il a depuis esté bruslé en ce lieu auec son pére & vne sienne sceur. 

65 Chapitre xvi. Comme, & en quelle fagon les Sorciers sont portez au 
Sabbat. 

1. Ils y sont portez tantost sur un baston, ow ballet, tantost sur un mouton 
ou bouc, & tantost par un homme noir. 

2. Quelquefois ils se frottét de graisse, & da d'autres non. 

3. Il y en a, lesquels n’estans pas Sorciers, & s’estans frottez, ne delaissent 
pas d@estre transportez au Sabbat, & la raison. 

4, L’onguent, & la graisse ne seruent de rien aux Sorciers, pour leur 
transport au Sabbat. 

5. Les Sorciers sont quelquefois portez au Sabbat par un vent & tourbillon. 


Chapitre xvii. Les Sorciers vont quelques fois de pied au Sabbat. 


Chapitre xviii. Si les Sorciers vont en ame seulement au Sabbat. 
1&3. Daffirmatiue, & exemples. 

2. Indices, par lesquels on peut coniecturer, qu’vne certaine femme estott 
au Sabbat en ame seulement. 

4. La negatiue. 

5. Comme s’entend ce que l’on dit d’Hrichtho, & d’ Apollonius lesquels 
resusciterent lun un soldat, & Vautre une ieune fille. 

6. Les Sorciers ne peuuent resusciter un mort, & exemples. 

7. Non plus que les heretiques & exemples. 

8. Opinion del Autheur sur le suiect de ce chapitre. 

9. Satan endort le plus souuent les personnes, & exemples. 


1 De haereticis et sortilegiis. Lugduni. 1536. 

2 Nicolas Remy, Dela démonoldtrie. 

3 Epistolarum, IV. 17. 

4 Silvester of Avila. 

5 Tommaso de Vio Gaetanl, 0.P. 1469-1534. 

6 Alfonso de Castro, Friar Minor. (1495-1558). Confessor to Charles V and Philip II of Spain. 

7 aoe da Siéna, o.p. Bibliotheca Sancta. ,. (Liber V); Secunda editio. Francofurti. 
1575. folio. 

8 Pére Crespet, Celestine monk. Deus livres de lahaine de Satan et des malins esprits contre 
Vhomme. Paris. 1590. 

9 Bartholomeo Spina, 0.P. De lamiis. De strigibus. Both folio, Venice, 1584. Apologia 
tres aduersus Joannem Franciscum Ponzinibium Jurisperitum. Venice. 1525. Giovanni Fran- 
cesco Ponzinibio wrote a Dedamiis of which I have used a late edition. Venice, 1584. 

10 Giovanni Lorenzo Anania, De natura demonum: libri iili. Venetiis. 1581. 8vo9. 


168 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


Chapitre xix. 
1. Les Sorciers vont enuiron la minuict au Sabbat. 

. La raison pourquoy le Sabbat si tient ordinairement de nuict. 

. Satan se plait aux tenebres, & a la couleur noire, estant au contraire 
la blancheur agreable a Dieu. 

. Les Sorciers dansent doz contre doz au Sabbat, & se masquent pour 
la plus part. 

. Le cog venant a chanter, le Sabbat disparoit aussi tost, & la raison. 

. La voix du cog funeste a Satan tout ainsi qu’au lyon, & au serpent. 

. Le Demon, selon quelques uns a crainte d’vne espée nue. 


5, 


~I oO mm wb 


Chapitre xx. Du iour du Sabbat. 
1. Le Sabbat se tient a un chacun iour de la semaine, mais principalement 
le Ieudy. 
2. Il se tient encor aux festes les plus solemnelles de Vannée. 


Chapitre xxi. Du lieu du Sabbat. 
1. Le lieu du Sabbat est signalé, selon aucuns, de quelques arbres ou bien 
de quelques croix, & Vopinion de Vautheur sur ce sutect. 
2. Chose remarquable d’vn lieu pretendu pour le Sabbat. 
3. Il faut de Peau au lieu, ot se tient le Sabbat, & pourquoy. 
4. Les Sorciers, a faute d’eau, urinent dans un trou, qwils font en terre. 


Chapitre xxii. De ce qui se fait au Sabbat. 
1, Les Sorciers y adorent Satan, estit en forme @homme noir, ou de bouc, & 
luy offrent des chandelles, & le baisent aux parties honteuses de 
derriere. 

Ils y dansent, & de leurs danses. 

. Ils se desbordent en toutes sortes de lubricitez, & comme Saian se fait 
Incube & Succube. 

Incestes, & paillardises execrebles des Huchites & Gnostiques. 

Les Sorciers banquettent au Sabbat, de leurs viandes, & brewuages, & 
de la facgon quwils tiennent a benir la table, & a rendre graces. 

. Ils ne prennent cependant point de gout aux Viandes, & sortent ordinaire- 

ment auec farm du repas. 

. Le repas paracheué, ils rendent conte de leurs actions & Satan. 

. Ils renoncent de nouueau a& Dieu, au Chresme, &c. Et comme Satan 

les sollicite a mal faire. 

. Ils y font la gresle. 

. Ils y celebrent messe, & de leurs chappes, & eau benite. 

. Satan se consume finalement en feu, & se reduit en cendre, de laquelle 

les Sorciers prennent tous, & a quel effet. 
12. Satan Singe de Dieu en tout. 


MOD OI MD TR coors 


fel fe 


°° Vouloir donner une description du Sabbat, c’est vouloir decrire ce qui 


n’existe point, & n’a jamais subsisté que dans imagination creuse & séduite 
des Sorciers & Sorcieres: les peintures qu’on nous en fait, sont d’aprés les 
réveries de ceux & de celles qui s’imaginent d’étre transportés A travers 
les airs au Sabbat en corps & en ame. Traité sur les Apparitions des Esprits, 
par le R. P. Dom Augustin Calmet, Abbé de Sénones. Paris, 1751, I. p. 138. 


°7 See the woodcut upon the title-page of Middleton & Rowley’s The 


World tost at Tennis, 4to, 1620. 


p. 


68 De Lancre, L’Incredulité, p. 769. 

69 Boguet, Discours des Sorciers. 

70 De Lancre, Tableau, p. 217. 

71 De Lancre, L’Incredulité, p. 800. . 

gant La Mystique Divine, traduit par Charles Sainte-Foi. V. viii. 19. 
8. 

7° George Sinclar, Satan’s Invisible World Discovered, Relation XVII. 

74 La Mystique Divine, 1902 (Nouvelle édition). III. p. 381. 

18 Tractatus, xxi. c. 11. P. xi. n. 179. 

76 Disquisitiones Magice, Lib. IJ. qte x. 

7 Compendium Maleficarum, p. 78. 


THE SABBAT 169 


78 Solent ad conuentum delate demonem conuentus preesidem in solio 
considentem forma terrifica, ut plurimum hirci uel canis, obuerso ad illum 
tergo accedentes, adorare . . . et deinde, homagii quod est indicium, osculari 
eum in podice.”! Guazzo notes: ‘‘ Ad signum homagii demonem podice 
osculantur.”** And Ludwig Elich says: ‘‘ Deinde quod homagii est indicium 
(honor sit auribus) ab iis ingerenda sunt oscula Demonis podici.’’$ 

79 Mystery of Witchcraft. 

8° It may bo remembered that, as related elsewhere, there is strong reason 
to suppose Francis Stewart, Earl of Bothwell, grandson of James V, was 
“the Devil”? on this occasion, as he was certainly the Grand Master of the 
witches and the convener of the Sabbat. 

81 Newes from Scotland, declaring the damnable Life of Doctor Fian. London. 
W. Wright. [1592]. 

82 Dudum ad audientiam nostram peruenit, quod uenerabilis frater noster 
G. Conuentrensis et Lichefeldensis episcopus erat in regno Angliz et alibi 
publice defamatur quod diabolo homagium fecerat et eum fuerat osculatus in 
tergo eique locutus multotius. 

8° Confessa ledit sire Guillaume ... avoir fait hommage audit ennemy 
en l’espéce et semblance d’ung mouton en le baisant par le fondement en 
signe de révérence et d’hommage. Jean Chartier, Chronique de Charles VII 
(ed. Vallet de Viriville). Paris, 1858. III. p.45. Shadwell, who has intro- 
duced this ceremony into The Lancashire Witches, II, (The Scene Sir Edward’s 
Cellar), in his notes refers to ‘‘ Doctor Edlin . . . who was burn’d for a 
Witch.” 

84 Reliquie Antique, vol. I. p. 247. ’ 

8® Tl a veu [le diable] quelque fois en forme d’homme, tenant son cheval 
par le froin, & qu’ils le vont adorer tenans vue chandelle de poix noir en 
leurs mains, le baisent quelque fois au nombril, quelque fois au cul. De Lancre, 
I’ Incredulité, p. 25. 

86 ‘Tum candelis piceis oblatis, vel vmbilico infantili, ad signum homagii 
eum in podice osculantur, Liber I. xiii. 

87 Satan’s Invisible World Discovered, Relation III. 

88... qui apparait la, tantost en forme d’vn grand homme noir, tantost 
en forme de bouc, & pour plus grand hommage, ils luy offrent des chandelles, 
qui rendent vne flamme de couleur bleiie. Discours des Sorciers, p. 131. 


etde AUpa Kadi vyevolunv éhepartivn, 
Kal we Kadol waldes pépoerv Acovictov es xopdv. 


(Fain would I be a fair lyre of ivory, and fair boys carrying me to Dionysus’ 
choir.) 

9° Sequuntur his choree quas in girum agitant semper tamen ad leuam 
progrediendo. Compendium Maleficarum, I. xiii. 

*1 Les Sorciers, dansent & font leurs danses en rond doz contre doz. 

* Quelquefois, mais rarement, ils dansent deux & deux, & par fois l’vn 
ga & lautre la, & tousiours en confusion. 

°8 On n’y dangoit que trois sortes de bransles. . . . La premiere c’est a la 
Bohemienne. . . . La seconde c’est & sauts: ces deux sont en rond. Sir 
John Davies in his Orchestra or A Poeme on Dauncing, London, 18mo, 1596, 
describes the seven movements of the Cransles (Crawls) as : 


Upward and downeward, forth and back againe, 
T'o this side and to that, and turning round. 
o6- 375-7, 
95 Sinclar, Satin’s Invisible World Discovered, III. 
9° Newes from Scotland, (1592). | 
*? ‘Tota turba colluuiesque pessima fescenninos in honorem demonum 
cantat obscenissimos. Hec cantat Harr, harr; illa Diabole, Diabole, salta 
huc, salta illuc; altera lude hic, lude illic; alia Sabaoth, Sabaoth, &c. ; 


1 Disquisiliones Magice, Lib. Il. qto xvi. 
Compendium Maleficarum, I. 13. 
® Demonomagia, Questis x. 


170 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


immo clamoribus, sibilis, ululatibus, propicinis furit ac debacchatur. 
Demonomagia, Questio x. 

°8 Hi habent mensas appositas & instructas accumbunt & incipiunt 
conuluari de cibis quos Demon suppeditat uel iis quos singuli attulere, 
Compendium Maleficarum, I. xiii. 

9° Les liures disent que les sorciers mangent au Sabbat de ce que le Diable 
leur a appresté: mais bien souuét il ne s’y trouue que des viandes qu’ils ont 
porté eux mesmes. Parfois il y a plusieurs tables seruies de bons viures & 
d’autres fois de tres meschans. ‘Les Sorciers ... banquettent & se 
festoient,’? remarks Boguet, ‘‘leur banquets estans composez de plusieurs 
sortes de viandes, selon les lieux & qualitez des personnes.’’ Tableau, p. 197. 
Discours des Sorciers, p. 135. 

100 Sinclar, Invisible World Discovered, Relation XXIX. 

101 [ls banquétent, dressant trois tables selon les trois diversités des gens 
susnommés. Ceux qui ont la charge du pain, ils portent le pain qu’ils font 
de blé dérobé aux aires invisiblement en divers lieux. Ils boivent de la 
malvoisie, pour eschauffer la chair a la luxure, que les deputés portent, la 
dérobant des caves ot elle se trouve. Ils y mangent ordinairement de la 
chair des petits enfants que les députés cuisent a la Synagogue et parfois 
les y portent tout vifs, les derobant 4 leurs maisons quand ils trouvent 
la commodité. Pére Sébastien Michaélis, 0o.P. Histoire admirable de la 
possession, 1613. 

102 On y boit aussi du vin, et le plus souvent de l’eau. 

103 Conuiuant de cibis a se uel a demone allatis, interdum delicatissimis, 
et interdum insipidis ex infantibus occisis aut cadaueribus exhumatis, 
precedente tamen benedictione mensz tali coetu digna. Salamanticenses, 
Trxxi. 0, TSP. dds nek s9, 

104 Uinum eorum preterea instar atri atque insinceri sanguinis in sordido 
aliquo scipho epulonibus solitum propinari. Nullam fere copiam rerum illic 
deesse afferunt praeterqua panis et salis. Addit Dominica Isabella apponi 
etiam humanas carnes. Compendium Maleficarum, I. xiii. 

105 Dela Démonomanie, III. 5. 

106 Doemonomagio, Questio vii. 

107 Tl n’y a jamais sel en ces repas. Discoura des Sorcters. 

108 On se met a table, ot il n’a iamais veu de sel. 

Shadwell draws attention to this detail: The Lancashire Witches, II, the 
Sabbat scene; where Mother Demdike says: 
See our Provisions ready here, 
To which no Salt must e’er come near ! 

109 Pére Sébastien Michaélis, o.p. Histoire admirable, 1613. 

110 Tsti uero qui expressam professionem fecerunt, reddunt etiam expressum 
cultum adorationis dzemoni per solemnia sacrificia, que ipsi faciunt diabolo, 
imitantes in omnibus diuinum cultum, cum paramentis, luminaribus, et aliis 
huiusmodi, ac precibus quibusdam et orationibus quibus instructi sunt, 
adeo ipsum adorant et collaudant continue, sicut nos uerum Creatorem 
adoramus. De Sortilegiis, Liber II. c. iii. n. 6. 

111 The Wonders of the Invisible World. A Hortatory Address. p. 81. 

112 J, Hutchinson, History of Massachusett’s Bay, II. p. 55. (1828.) 

113 Huchologion of the Orthodox Church, ed. Venice, 1898, p. 63. 

114 Baissac, Les grands jours de la Sorcellerie (1890), p. 391. 

115 Calmeil, De la folie, I. p. 344. 

116 Sébastien Michaélis, Histoire admirable. 1613. Translated as Admirable 
Historie. London, 1613. 

117 Desmarest, Histoire de Magdelaine Bavent. Paris. 4to. 1652. 

118 For full details see Francois Ravaisson, Archives de la Bastille, Paris, 
1873, where the original depositions are given. 

119 [La-Bas appeared in the Echo de Paris, 1890-1. 

120 Tableau, p. 401. For the full account of these ceremonies I have chiefly 
relied upon Guazzo; Boguet, Discours, XXII, 10; De Lancre, pp. 86, 122, 
126, 129; and Gorres, Mystique, V. pp. 224-227. It hardly seems necessary 
to give particular citations here for each circumstance, 


THE SABBAT 171 


121 De Lancre, Tableau, IV. 4. 

122 Corriere Nazionale di Torino, Maggio. 1895 

123 De Lancre, Tableau, p. 401. 

124 Gorres, Mystique, V. p. 230. 

125 Roland Brévannes, L’Orgie Satanique, 1V. Le Sabbat, p. 122. 

126 Discours, p. 141. 

127 §. Caleb, Messes Noires, p. 153. 

128 Confession faicte par Messire Loys Gaufridi, A Aix. MVCXI. 

129 A yne Chasuble qui a vne croix; mais qu’elle n’a que trois barres. 

130 Le Diable en mesme temps pisse dans vn trou 4a terre, & fait de l’eau 
beniste de son vrine, de laquelle celuy, qui dit la messe, arrouse tous les 
assistants auec vn asperges noir. Boguet, Discours, p. 141. 

131 . . . lors que Tramesabot disoit la Messe, & qu’auant la commencer li 
iettoit de l’eau beniste qui estoit faicte de pissat, & faisoit la reverence de 
Vespaule, & disoit Asperges Diaboli. De Lancre, L’Incredulité. 

132 T,’eau beniste est iaune comme du pissat d’asne, & qu’apres qu’on la 
iettée on dit la Messe. 

133 Michaélis Histoire admirable, 1613. Miss Murray, The Witch-Cult, p.149, 
suggests that this sprinkling was “‘a fertility rite’?! An astounding theory. 
This blasphemy, of course, alludes to the curse of the Jews, 8S. Matthew 
xxvii. 25. 

134 Que le Diable dit le Sermo au Sabbat, mais qu’on n’entend ce qu’il dit, 
parce qu’il parle come en grodant. Which suggests the wearing of a mask, 
or, at least, a voice purposely disguised. 

135 Dit qu’il a veu bailler au Sabbat du pain benist & de l’encens, mais il ne 
sentoit bon comme celuy de l’Eglise. 

136 So in the Orleans trial Gentil le Clere confessed that the Devil “ tourne 
le dos a l’Autel quand il veut leuer l’Hostie & le Calice, qui sont noirs.” 

137 Silvain Nevillon, (1614-1615). Dit aussi auoir veu des Sorciers & 
Sorcieres qui apportoient des Hosties au Sabbat, lesquelles elles auoient 
gardé lors qu’on leur auoit baillé 4 communier a |’Eglise. 

188 Presumably S. Cesarius of Arles, 470-543, who incidentally was famous 
for eradicating the last traces of Pagan superstitions and practices. He 
imposed the penalty of excommunication upon all those who consulted 
augurs and wore heathen amulets. The Gnostics were especially notorious 
for their employment of such periapts, talismans, and charms, 

139 J, F. Bladé, Quatorze superstitions populaires de la Gascogne, pp. 16 sqq. 
Agen. 1883. 

140 Decisions. Edinburgh, 1759. 

141 To laisse & penser si l’on n’exerce pas la toutes les especes de lubricités 
veu encor que les abominations, qui firent foudre & abismer Sodome & 
Gomorrhe, y font fort communes. Boguet, Discours, c. xxii. p. 137. 

142 Histoire admirable, 1613. 

143 Finalement, ils paillardent ensemble: le dimanche avec les diables 
succubes ou incubes; le jeudi, commettent la sodomie; le samedi la 
bestialité ; les autres jours & la voie naturelle. 

144 The Louviers process lasted four years, 1643-7. 

145 Aprés la Messe on dance, puis on couche ensemble, hommes auec hommes, 
& auec des femmes. Puis on se met & table. . .. Dit qu’il a cognu des 
hommes & s’est accouplé auec eux; qu’il auoit vne couppe on gondolle par 
le moyen de laquelle toutes les femmes le suiuoient pour y boire. 

146 Apres la danse finie les diables se coucherét auecques elles, & eurét 
leur cOpagnie. 

147. | . grand nombre d’hommes & femmes furent bruslees en la ville 
d’Arras, accusees les vns par les autres, & cdfesserent qu’elles estoient la 
nuict transportees aux danses, & puis qu’ils se couploient auecques les diables, 
qu’ils adoroient en figure humaine. 

148. | . toutes generalement sans exception, confessoient que le diable 
auoit copulation charnelle auec elles, apres leur auoir fait renoncer Dieu 
& leur religion. 

149. . . c’est A scauoir que les diables, tat qu’elles auoient esté Sorcieres, 


172 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


auoic) eu copulation auec elles. Henry de Cologne confirmant ceste opinion 
dit, yuw’il y a rien plus vulgaire en Alemaigne. 

150 | | . quod sacrificia dabant dszmonibus in animalibus uiuis, que 
diuidebant mombratim et offerebant distribuendo in inferne quadruuiis 
cuidam demoni qui se facit appellari Artis Filium ex pauperioribus inferni. 
Dame Alice Kyteler, ed. T. Wright. Camden Society. 1843. pp. 1-2. 

161 Highland Papers, III. p. 18. 

152 #neid, VI. 243-251. 

153 Horace, Sermonum, I. viii. 

154 Dictionnaire Infernal, ed. 1863, p. 590. 

155 Salgues, Des erreurs et des prejugés, I, p. 423. 

156 TIT. 44-45. 

157 Alludit ad Haruspicis officium, qui exta & viscera inspiciebat. Plinius 
inquit: Ha rane rubete utsceribus; id est, lingua, ossiculo, licne, corde, 
mira fiert posse constat, sunt enin plurimis medicaminibus referta. Forte 
intelligit rubetam uel bufonem, indicans se non esse ueneficum, nec rubetarum 
extis uti ad uenefica. Cf. also Pliny, Historia Naturalis, XXXII. 5. 

158 Ravaisson, Archives de la Bastille, VI. p. 295 et alibi. Tho interrogatories 
of these scandals may be found in volumes IV and V of this work. 

159 J, Strackerjan, Aberglaube und Sagen aus dem Herzogthum Oldenburg 
(1867), I. 70. 

160 Kénigsberger Hartung’sche Zeitung, 1866. No. 9. 

161 V, Fossel. Volksmedicin und medicinischer Aberglaube in Steiermark, 
Graz, 1886. 

162 U, Jahn, Zauber mit Menschenblut und anderen Teilen des menschlichen 
Korpers, 1888. 

163 A, Lowenstimm, Aberglaube und Strafecht, (Die Volksmedizin), 1897. 

164 V. Fossel, Volksmedicin, ut swpra. 

165 Adrian Kembter, 0.8.P., writing in 1745 enumerates 52 instances, and 
his last is dated 1650. This number might be doubled, and extends until 
the present century. H.C. Lee, in an article, Hl santo nino de la Guardia, has 
signally failed to disprove the account. See the series of forty-four articles 
in the Osservatore Cattolico March and April, 1892, Nos. 8438-8473. 

166 Le Temps, Paris, 1 Feb. and 23 March, 1892. 

167 Hetichism in West Africa, New York, 1904. 

168 De Lancre, T'ableau, p. 154. 


CHAPTER V 
THe Witcyu In Hoty Writ 


In the course of the Holy Scriptures there occur a great 
number of words and expressions which are employed in 
connexion with witchcraft, divination, and demonology, 
and of these more than one authority has made detailed and 
particular study. Some terms are of general import, one 
might even venture to say vague and not exactly defined, 
some are directly specific: of some phrases the signification 
is plain and accepted; concerning others, scholars are still 
undecided and differ more or less widely amongst them- 
selves. Yet it is noteworthy that from the very earliest 
period the attitude of the inspired writers towards magic and 
related practices is almost wholly condemnatory and uncom- 
promisingly hostile. The vehement and repeated denuncia- 
tions launched against the professors of occult sciences and 
the initiate in foreign esoteric mysteries do not, moreover, 
seem to be based upon any supposition of fraud but rather 
upon the ‘‘ abomination ’’ of the magic in itself, which is 
recognized as potent for evil and able to wreak mischief upon 
life and limb. It is obvious, for example, that the opponents 
of Moses, the sorcerers! Jannes and Mambres, were masters 
of no mean learning and power, since when, in the presence 
of Pharaoh, Aaron’s rod became a live serpent, they also and 
their mob of disciples ‘‘ fecerunt per incantationes Augyptiacas 
et arcana quedam similiter,” casting down their rods, which 
were changed into a mass of writhing snakes. They were 
able also to bring up frogs upon the land, but it was past 
their wit to drive them away. We have here, however, a 
clear acknowledgement of the reality of magic and its dark 
possibilities, whilst at the same time prominence is given to 
the fact that when it contests with the miraculous power 
divinely bestowed upon Moses it fails hopelessly and com- 
pletely. The serpent, which was Aaron’s rod, swallows all 


173 


174. THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


the other serpents. The swarms of mosquitoes and gadflies 
which Aaron caused to rise in myriads from the dust the 
native warlocks could not produce, nay, they were con- 
strained to cry ‘‘ Digitus Dei est hic”’; whilst a little later 
they were unable to protect even their own bodies from the 
pest of blains and swelling sores. None the less a super- 
natural power was possessed by Jannes and Mambres as 
truly as by Moses, although not to the same extent, and 
derived from another, in fact, from an opposite and 
antagonistic source. 

Even more striking is the episode of Balaam, who dwelt 
at Pethor, a city of Mesopotamia (the Pitru of the cuneiform 
texts), and who was summoned thence by Balak, King of 
Moab, to lay a withering curse upon the Israelites, encamped 
after their victory over the Amorrhites at the very confines 
of his territory. The royal messengers come to Balaam 
‘““ with the rewards of divination in their hand,’’ a most 
illuminating detail, for it shows that already the practice of 
magical arts is rewarded with gifts of great value.?. In fact 
when Balaam refuses, although with reluctance, to accompany 
the first embassy, princes of the highest rank are then sent 
to him with injunctions to offer him rank and wealth or 
whatsoever he may care to ask. ‘‘I will promote thee to 
very great honour, and I will do whatsoever thou sayest unto 
me; come, therefore, and curse this people,” are the king’s 
actual words. After great difficulties, for Balaam is, at first, 
forbidden to go and only wins his way on condition that he 
undertakes to do what he is commanded and to speak no 
more than he is inspired to say, the seer commences his 
journey and is met by the king at a frontier town, and by 
him taken up “‘ unto the high places of Baal,’ to the sacred 
groves upon the hill-tops, where seven mystic altars are 
built, and a bullock and a ram offered upon each. Balaam 
then senses the imminent presence of God, and withdraws 
swiftly apart to some secret place where ‘‘ God met” him. 
He returns to the scene of sacrifice and forthwith blesses the 
Israelites. Balak in consternation and dismay hurries him to 
the crest of Pisgah (Phasga), and the same ceremonies are 
performed. But again Balaam pours forth benisons upon the 
people. A third attempt is made, and this time was chosen 
the summit of Peor (Phogor), a peculiarly sacred sanctuary, the 


THE WITCH IN HOLY WRIT 175 


centre of the local cult of Baal Peor, whose ancient worship 
comprised a ritual of most primitive obscenity. Again the 
sevenfold sacrifice is offered upon seven altars, and this time 
Balaam deliberately resists the divine control, a vain 
endeavour, since he passes into trancé, and utters words of 
ineffable benediction gazing down the dim avenues of 
futurity to the glorious vision of the Madonna, Stella 
Jacob, and her Son, the Sceptre of Israel. Beating his 
clenched hands together in an access of ungovernable fury 
the choused and exasperated king incontinently dismisses 
his guest. 

It must be remarked that throughout the whole of this 
narrative, the details of which are as interesting as they are 
significant, there is on the part of the writer a complete 
recognition of the claims put forth by Balaam and so amply 
acknowledged and appreciated by Balak. Balaam was a 
famous sorcerer, and one, moreover, who knew and could 
launch the mystic Word of Power with deadly effect. Among 
the early Arabs as among the Israelites the magic spell, the 
Word of Blessing or the Curse, played a prominent part. In 
war, the poet, by cursing the enemy in rhythmic runes, 
rendered services not inferior to the heroism of the warrior 
himself. So the Jews of Medina used to bring into their 
synagogues images of their hated enemy Malik b. al-Aglam ; 
and at these effigies they hurled maledictions each time they 
met. The reality of Balaam’s power is clearly the key-note 
of the Biblical account. Else why should his services be 
transferred to the cause of Israel? Balak’s greeting to the 
seer is no empty compliment but vitally true: ‘I wot that 
he whom thou blessest is blessed, and he whom thou cursest 
is cursed.”’ Not impertinent is the bitter denunciation in the 
song of Deborah, Judges v. 23, ‘“‘ Curse ye me Meroz, said the 
angel of the Lord, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof ; 
because they came not to the help of the Lord against the 
mighty !’’(A.V.) Belief in the potency of the uttered word 
has existed at all times and in all places, and yet continues 
to exist everywhere to-day. 

Although Balaam prophesied it must be borne in mind 
that he was not a prophet in the Scriptural sense of the term ; 
he was a soothsayer, a wizard; the Vulgate has hariolus,‘ 
which is derived from the Sanskrit hira, entrails, and 


176 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


equivalent to haruspea. This term originally denoted an ~ 
Ktruscan diviner who foretold future events by an inspection 
of the entrails of sacrificial victims. It was from the 
Ktruscans that this practice was introduced to the Romans. 
It is probable that Balaam employed the seven bullocks and 
rams in this way, the technical ewtispicitum, a method of 
inquiry and forecasting which seems to have been almost 
universal, although the exact manner in which the omens 
were read differed among the several peoples and at various 
times. It persisted, none the less, until very late, and indeed 
it is resorted to, so it has been said, by certain occultists even 
at the present day. It is known to have been practised by 
Catherine de’ Medici, and it is closely connected with the 
dark Voodoo worship of Jamaica and Hayti. S. Thomas, 
it is true, has spoken of Balaam as a prophet, but the holy 
doctor hastens to add “‘ a prophet of the devil.”’ The learned 
Cornelius 4 Lapide, glossing upon Numbers xxii and xxiii 
writes: “It is clear that Balaam was a prophet, not of God, 
but of the Devil. .. . He was.a magician, and he sought 
for a conference with his demon to take counsel with him.’’® 
He is of opinion that the seven altars were erected in honour 
of the Lords of the Seven Planets. Seven is, of course, the 
perfect number, the mystic number, even as three; and all 
must be done by odd numbers. The woman in Vergil who 
tries to call back her estranged lover Daphnis by potent 
incantations cries: numero deus impare gaudet. (Heaven 
loves unequal numbers.) Eclogue viii. 75 (Pharmaceutria). 
S. Augustine, S. Ambrose, and Theodoret consider that 
when Balaam on the first occasion withdrew hastily saying 
‘** Peradventure the Lord will come to meet me,” he 
expected to meet a demon, his familiar. But ‘‘ God met 
Balaam.” The very precipitation and disorder seem to 
point to the design of the sorcerer, for as in the Divine 
Liturgy all is done with due dignity, grace, and comeliness, 
so in the functions of black magic all is hurried, ugly, and 
terrible. 

One of the most striking episodes in the Old Testament 
is concerned with necromancy, the appearance of Samuel in 
the cave or hut at Endor. Saul, on the eve of a tremendous 
battle with the Philistines, is much dismayed and almost 
gives away to a complete nervous collapse as he sees the 


THE WITCH IN HOLY WRIT 177 


overwhelming forces of the ruthless foe. To add to his panic, 
when he consulted the Divine Oracles, no answer was 
returned, “‘neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by 
prophets.” And although he had in the earlier years of his 
reign shown himself a determined represser of Witchcraft, in 
his dire extremity he catches at any straw, and bids his 
servants seek out some woman “‘ that hath a familiar spirit,”’ 
and his servants said to him, ‘‘ Behold there is a woman that 
hath a familiar spirit at Endor,” which is a miserable hamlet 
on the northern slope of a hill, lying something south of 
Mount Tabor. | 

The phrase here used, rendered by the Vulgate ‘‘ pytho ”’ 
(Querite mihi mulierem habentem pythonem) and by the 
Authorized Version “‘ familiar spirit,” is in the original ’6bh,® 
which signifies the departed spirit evoked, and also came to 
stand for the person controlling such a spirit and divining by 
its aid. The Witch of Endor is described as the possessor of 
an *6bh. The LXX. translates this word by éyyacrpauvOos, 
which means ventriloquist, either because the real actors 
thought that the magician’s alleged communication with the 
spirit was a mere deception to impose upon the inquirer 
who is tricked by the voice being thrown into the ground 
and being of strange quality—a view which mightily com- 
mends itself to Lenormant? and the sceptical Renan® but 
which is quite untenable—or rather because of the belief 
common in antiquity that ventriloquism was not a natural 
faculty but due to the temporary obsession of the medium 
by a spirit. In this connexion the prophet Isaias has a 
remarkable passage : Querite a pythonibus, et a diuinis qui 
strident in incantationibus suis. (Seek unto them that have 
familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep and that mutter. 
A.V.) Many Greek and Latin poets attribute a peculiar and 
distinctive sound to the voices of spirits. Homer (Iliad, 
XXIII, 101; Odyssey, XXIV, 5, and 9) uses pie, 
which is elsewhere found of the shrill cry or chirping of 
partridges, young swallows, locusts, mice, bats,? and of such 
other sounds as the creaking of a door, the sharp crackling 
of a thing burned in a fire. Vergil 4#ineid, III, 39, speaks 
of the ery of Polydorus from his grave as gemitus lacrimabilis, 
and the clamour of the spirits in Hades is wow exigua. Horace 
also in his description of the midnight Esbat on the Esquiline 

N 


178 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


describes the voice as triste et acutum ; (Sermonum, I. vii, 
40-1) : 
singula quid memorem, quo pacto alterna loquentes 
umbrae cum Sagana resonarent triste et acutum. 


Statius, Thebais, VII, 770, has “‘ stridunt anime,’’ upon which 
Kaspar von Barth, the famous sixteenth-century German 
scholar, annotates ‘“‘ Homericum hoc est qui corporibus 
excedentes animas stridere excogitauit.’’ So in Shakespeare’s 
well-known lines, Hamlet I, 1: 


the sheeted dead 
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets, 


When he had been informed of this witch Saul, accordingly, 
completely divested himself of the insignia of royalty and in 
a close disguise accompanied only by two of his most trusted 
followers similarly muffled in cloaks, he painfully made his 
way at dead of night to her remote and squalid hovel. He 
eagerly requested her to exercise her powers, and to raise 
the spirit of the person whom he should name. At first she 
refused, since some years before the laws had been stringently 
enforced and the penalty of death awaited all sorcerers 
and magicians. Not unreasonably she feared that these 
mysterious strangers might be laying a trap for her, to 
imperil her life. But the concealed king persuaded her, and 
bound himself by a mighty oath that she should come to no 
harm. Whereupon she consented to evoke the soul of the 
prophet Samuel, as he desired. The charm commenced, and 
after the vision of various familiars—the woman said: Deos 
uidi ascendentes de terra—and S. Gregory of Nyssa explains 
these as demons, ta favtacuara,—Samuel appeared amid 
circumstances of great terror and awe, and in the same 
moment the identity of her visitant was recognized (we are 
not informed how) by the sybil.1° In a paroxysm of rage 
and fear the haggard crone turned to him and shrieked out : 
“Why hast thou deceived me? For thou art Saul.” The 
king, however, tremblingly reassured her for her own safety, 
and feeling that he was confronted by no earthly figure—he 
could not see the phantom, although he sensed a presence from 
beyond the grave—he asked: ‘‘ What form is he of ?”’? And 
when the beldame, to whom alone the prophet was visible, 
described the spirit: ‘‘ An old man cometh up, and he is 


THE WITCH IN HOLY WRIT 179 
covered with a mantle,” Saul at once recognized Samuel, 
and fell prostrate upon the ground, whilst the apparition 
spake his swiftly coming doom. 

Here we have a detailed scene of necromancy proper’ 
There are, it is true, some remarkable, and perhaps unusual, 
features : the witch alone sees the phantom, but Saul instantly 
knows who it is from her description ; he directly addresses 
Samuel, and he hears the prediction of the dead prophet. 
The whole narrative undoubtedly bears the impress of * 
actuality and truth. 

There are several interpretations of these incidents. In 
the first place some writers have denied the reality of the 
vision, and so it is claimed that the witch deceived Saul by 
skilful trickery. This hardly seems possible. It is not likely 
that she would have run so grave a risk as the exercise, or 
pretended exercise, of magical arts must entail were she a 
mere charlatan ; an accomplice of remarkably quick wit and 
invention would have been necessary to carry out the details 
of the plot; it is surely incredible that they should have 
ventured upon so uncompromising a denunciation of the 
king and have foretold so evil an end to his house. In fact 
the whole tenor of the story conflicts with this explanation, 
which is not allowed by the Fathers. Theodoret, it is true, 
inclines to suppose that some deception was practised, but 
he hesitates to maintain an unequivocal opinion in the matter. 
In his Questiones in I Regum Cap. xxviii he asks was 
Ta KaTa Thy éyyactpiuvOoy vonTréov 341 and says that some 
think that the witch actually evoked Samuel, others believe 
the Devil took the likeness of the prophet. The first opinion 
he characterizes as impious, the second foolish. 


S. Jerome, whose authority would, of course, be entirely “= 


conclusive, does not perhaps pronounce definitely ; but his 
comments sufficiently show, I think, that he regarded the 
apparition as being really Samuel. In his tractate In 
Esaiam, III, vii, he writes: ‘‘ Most authors think that a clear 
sign was given Saul from the earth itself and from the very 
depths of Hades when he saw Samuel evoked by incantations 
and magic spells.”12, And again, In Ezechielem, Lib. IV ; xiii, 
the holy doctor, speaking of witches, has: ‘‘they are 
inspired by an evil spirit. The Hebrews say that they are 
well versed in baleful] crafts, necromancy and soothsayings, 


180 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


such as was the hag who seemed to raise up the soul of 
Samuel,’’8 

Some authors directly attribute this appearance of Samuel 
to an evil spirit, who took the form of the prophet in order 


i~ to dishearten Saul and tempt him to despair. Thus S. Gregory 


of Nyssa in his letter De pythonissa ad Theodosium'' says 
that the Devil deceived the witch, who thus in her turn 
deceived the king. S. Basil expressly lays down (In Esaiam, 
VIII. 218): ‘* They were demons who assumed the appear- 
ance of Samuel.’’!5 And he conjectures that, inasmuch as 
the denunciation of Saul was strictly true in every detail, 
the demons having heard the sentence delivered by God 
merely reported it. Among the Latins Tertullian, more than 
a century before, had written: ‘‘ And I believe that evil 
spirits can deceive many by their lies; for a lying spirit was 
allowed to feign himself to be the shade of Samuel.’’1® 

The preponderance of opinion, however, is decidedly in 
favour of a literal and exact understanding of the event, that 
it was, in effect, Samuel who appeared to the guilty monarch 
and foretold his end. Origen argues upon these lines, basing 
his reasons upon the plain statements of Holy Writ: “ But 
it is distinctly stated that Saul knew it was Samuel.”’!? And 
later he adds: ‘‘ The Scripture cannot lie. And the words of 
Scripture are: And the woman saw Samuel.’’!8 Elsewhere 
when treating of evil spirits he precisely states: ‘“‘ And that 
souls have their abiding place I have made known to you 
from the evocation by the witch of Samuel, when Saul 
requested her to divine.’’!® S. Ambrose also says: ‘“‘ Even 
after his death Samuel, as Holy Scripture informs us, pro- 
phesied of what was to come.’?® We have further the 
overwhelming witness of S. Augustine, who in more than one 
place discusses the question at some length, and decides that 
the phantom evoked by the sibyl was really and truly the 
soul of the prophet Samuel. Thus in that important treatise 
De Doctrina Christiana, commenced in 397 and finally revised 
for issue in 427, he has: ‘‘ The shade of Samuel, long since 
dead, truly foretold what was to come unto King Saul.’’?? 
Whilst a passage in the even more famous and weighty 
De Cura pro mortuis gerenda, written in 421, asserts: ‘* For 
the prophet Samuel, who was dead, revealed the future to 
King Saul, who was yet alive.’’2? 


THE WITCH IN HOLY WRIT 181 


Josephus believed the apparition to have been summoned 
by the witch’s necromantic powers, for in his Jewish Anti- 
quities, VI, xiv, 2, when dealing with the story of Endor, he 
chronicles: ‘‘ [Saul] bade her bring up to him the soul of 
Samuel. She, not knowing who Samuel was, called him out 
of Hades,’ *? a remarkable testimony. 

Throughout the whole of the Old Testament the sin of 
necromancy is condemned in the strongest terms, but the 
very reiteration of this ban shows that none the less evoca- 
tion of the dead was extensively and continuously practised, 
albeit in the most clandestine and secret manner. The 
Mosaic law denounces such arts again and again: ‘* Go not 
aside after wizards, neither ask any thing of soothsayers, to 
be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God ” (Leviticus 
xix. 31); ‘‘ The soul that shall go aside after magicians and 
soothsayers, and shall commit fornication with them, I will 
set my face against that soul, and destroy it out of the midst 
of its people’ (Leviticus xx. 6). Even more explicit in its 
details is the following prohibition: ‘‘ Neither let there be 
found among you any one . . . that consulteth soothsayers, 
or observeth dreams and omens, neither let there be any 
wizard, nor charmer, nor any one that consulteth pythonic 
spirits, or fortune tellers, or that seeketh the truth from the 
dead. For the Lord abhorreth all these things” (Deuteronomy 
Xvi. 10-12). Hence it is obvious that the essential malice 
of the sin lay in the fact that it was lése-majesté against God, 
such as is also the sin of heresy.24 This is, moreover, clearly 
brought out in the fact that the temporal penalty was death. 
“ A man, or woman, in whom there is a pythonical or 
divining spirit, dying, let them die ’’ (Leviticus xx. 27 ). And 
the famous statute, Exodus xxii. 18, expressly Says : 
“Wizards thou shalt not suffer to live.” Nevertheless, 
necromancy persisted, and on occasion, such as during the 
reign of Manasses, thirteenth king of Juda (692-688 z.c.),25 
it no longer lurked in dark corners and obscene hiding-holes, 
but flaunted its foul abomination unabashed in the courts 
of the palace and at noon before the eyes of the superstitious 
capital. In the days of this monarch divination was openly 
used, omens observed, pythons publicly appointed, whilst 
soothsayers multiplied ‘‘ to do evil before the Lord, and to 
provoke Him” (4 Kings [2 Kings] xxi. 6). The ghastly rites 


182. THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


of human sacrifice were revived, and it was common know- 
ledge that the sovereign himself, upon the slightest and most 
indifferent pretexts, resorted to eatispicium, the seeking of 
omens from the yet palpitating entrails of boys devoted to 
this horrid purpose. ‘‘ Manasses shed also very much innocent 
blood, till he filled Jerusalem up to the mouth” (4 Kings 
[2 Kings] xxi. 16), We may parallel the foul sorceries of the 
Jewish king with the detailed confession of Gilles de Rais, 
who at his trial ‘‘related how he had stolen away children, 
detailed all his foul cajolements, his hellish excitations, his 
frenzied murders, his ruthless rapes and ravishments : 
obsessed by the morbid vision of his poor pitiful victims, 
he described at length their long-drawn agonies or swift 
torturings ; their piteous cries and the death-rattle in their 
throats; he avowed that he had wallowed in their warm 
entrails; he confessed that he had torn out their hearts 
through large gaping wounds, as a man might pluck ripe 
fruit.?26 The demonolatry of the sixth century before Christ 
is the same as that of fourteen hundred years after the birth 
of Our Lord. 

As has been previously noticed, Balaam employed bullocks 
and rams for eatispicitum, and nine centuries later, in the 
book of Ezechiel (xxi. 21), Esarhaddon is represented as 
looking at the liver of an animal offered in sacrifice with a 
view to divination. ‘‘ For the king of Babylon stood in the 
highway, at the head of two ways, seeking divination, 
shuffling arrows: he inquired of the idols, and consulted 
entrails. On his right hand was the divination of Jerusalem, 
to set battering rams, to open the mouth in slaughter.” The 
mode of sortilege by arrows, belomancy, to which allusion is 
here made was extensively practised among the Chaldeans, as 
also by the Arabs. Upon this passage S. Jerome comments: 
‘‘He shall stand in the highway, and consult the oracle 
after the manner of his nation, that he may cast arrows into 
a quiver, and mix them together, being written upon or 
marked with the names of each people, that he may see whose 
arrow will come forth, and which city he ought first to 
attack.” 

Among the three hundred and sixty idols which stood 
round about the Caaba of Mecca, and which were all destroyed 
by Mohammed when he captured the city in the eighth year 


THE WITCH IN HOLY WRIT 183 


of the Hejira, was the statue of a man, made of agate, who 
held in one hand seven arrows such as the pagan Arabs 
used in divination. This figure, which, it is said, anciently 
represented the patriarch Abraham, was regarded with 
especial awe and veneration. 

The arrows employed by the early Arabs for magical 
practices were more generally only three in number. They 
were carefully preserved in the temple of some idol, before 
whose shrine they had been consecrated. Upon one of them 
was inscribed ‘“‘My Lord hath commanded me’’s upon 
another ‘“*‘ My Lord hath forbidden me ’’; and the third was 
blank. If the first was drawn the inquirer looked upon it 
as a propitious omen promising success in the enterprise ; if 
the second were drawn he augured failure; if the third, all 
three were mixed again and another trial was made. These 
divining arrows seem always to have been consulted by the 
Arabs before they engaged in any important undertaking, as, 
for example, when a man was about to go upon a particular 
journey, to marry, to commence some weighty business. 

In certain cases and in many countries rods were used 
instead of arrows. Small sticks were marked with occult 
signs, thrown into a vessel and drawn out; or, it might be, 
cast into the air, the direction they took and the position 
in which they fell being carefully noted. This practice is 
known as rhabdomancy. The LXX, indeed, Ezechiel xxi. 21, 
has paBdouarteta not BeAouayteia, and rhabdomancy is men- 
tioned by S. Cyril of Alexandria. 

In the Koran, chapter V, The Table or The Chapter of 
Contracts, ‘‘ divining arrows ’”’ are said to be “ an abomina- 
tion of the work of Satan,’? and the injunction is given 
‘‘ therefore avoid them that ye may prosper.” 

It is noticeable that in the early Biblical narrative one 
form of divination is mentioned, if not with approval, at any 
rate without overtreproach. Upon the occasion of the second 
journey of Jacob’s sons to Egypt to buy corn in the time 
of famine, Joseph gave orders that their sacks were to be 
filled with food, that each man’s money was to be put in the 
mouth of his sack, but that in the sack of Benjamin was also 
to be concealed the ‘‘ cup, the silver cup.” And the next 
morning when they had set out homewards and were gone 
a little way out of the city they were overtaken by a band 


184 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


of Joseph’s servants under the conduct of his steward who 
arrested their progress and accused them of the theft of the 
cup: “ Is not this it in which my lord drinketh, and whereby 
indeed he divineth ? Ye have done evil in so doing ” (A.V.). 
The Vulgate has: ‘‘Scyphus quem furati estis, ipse est in 
quo bibit dominus meus et in quo augurari solet : pessimam 
rem fecistis ” (Genesis xliv. 5). And later when they are 
brought back in custody and led into the presence of Joseph 
he asks them: ‘‘ Wot ye not that such a man as I can 
certainly divine?” Vulgate: ‘‘ An ignoratis quod non sit 
similis mei in augurandi scientia ? ”’ 

In the first place it cannot be for a moment supposed that 
Joseph’s claim, which here he so publicly and so emphatically 
states, to be a diviner of no ordinary powers was a mere 
device for the occasion. From the prominence given to the 
cup in the story it is clear that his steward regarded it as 
a vessel of especial value and import, dight with mysterious 
properties. 

This cup was used for that species of divination known as 
hydromantia, a practice almost universal in antiquity and 
sufficiently common at the present day. The seer, or in some 
cases the inquirer, by gazing fixedly into a pool or basin 
of still water will see therein reflected as in a mirror a pic- 
ture of that which it is sought to know. Strabo, XVI, 2, 
39, speaking of the Persians, writes: vapade tote répaats 
of Mayot kat vexvouavrers Kat @tt of eyouevor Nexavomavrers 
kal vdpouavres. King Numa, according to one very 
ancient tradition, divined by seeing gods in a clear stream. 
‘For Numa himself, not being instructed by any prophet 
or Angel of God, was fain to fall to hydromancy : making 
his gods (or rather his devils) to appear in water, and 
instruct him in his religious institutions. Which kind of 
divination, says Varro, came from Persia and was used by 
Numa and afterwards by Pythagoras, wherein they used 
blood also and called forth spirits infernal. Necromancy, 
the Greeks call it, but necromancy or hydromancy, whether 
you like, there it is that the dead seem to speak ” (S. Augustine 
De Ciuitate Det. VII. 35).27 

Apuleius in his De Magia,*® quoting from Varro, says: 
‘‘ Trallibus de euentu Mithridatici belli magica percontatione 
consultantibus puerum in aqua simulacrum Mercuri con- 


dl 


THE WITCH IN HOLY WRIT 185 


templantem, quee futura erant, centum sexaginta uersibus 
cecinisse.”” In Egypt to-day the Magic Mirror is frequently 
consulted. A boy is engaged to gaze into a splash of water, 
or it may be ink or some other dark liquid poured into the 
palm of the hand, and therein he will assuredly see pictorially 
revealed the answers to those questions put to him. When 
a theft has been committed the Magic Mirror is invariably 
questioned thus. In Scandinavia the country folk, who had 
lost anything, would go to a diviner on a Thursday night to 
see in a pail of water who it was had robbed them.?® All 
the world over this belief prevails, in Tahiti and among the 
Hawaiians, in the Malay Peninsula, in New Guinea, among 
the Eskimos. 

Similar forms of divination are those by things dropped 
into some liquid, a precious stone or rich amulet is cast into 
a cup, and the rings formed on the surface of the contents 
were held to predict the future. Again warm wax or molten 
lead is poured into a vessel of cold water, and significant 
letters of the alphabet may be spelled out or objects dis- 
cerned from the shapes this wax or lead assumes; or again, 
the empty tea-cup is tilted and from the leaves, their size, 
shape, and the manner in which they lie, prognostications 
are made. This is common in England, Scotland, Ireland, 
Sweden, Lithuania, whilst in Macedonia coffee-dregs are 
employed in the same manner. 

But whether the seer be Hebrew patriarch or Roman 
king and the divination dignified by some occult name, Cero- 
mancy (the melting of wax), Lecanomancy (basins of water), 
Oinomancy (the lees of wine), or whether it be some old plaid- 
shawled grandam by her cottage fire peering at the leaves 
of her afternoon tea, the object is the same throughout the 
ages, for all systems of divination are merely so many 


pe becca of obscuring the outer vision, in order that the inner 
Vv 


ision may become open. 

As was inevitable hydromantia lent itself to much trickery, 
and Hippolytus of Rome, presbyter and antipope (0b. circa 
A.D. 236), in his important polemic against heretics, Philoso- 
phumena,®® IV, 35, explains in detail how persons were 
elaborately duped by the pseudo-magicians. A room was 
prepared, the roof of which was painted blue to resemble 
the sky, there was set therein a large vessel full of water 


186 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


with a glass bottom, {mmediately under which lay a secret 
chamber. The inquirer gazed steadfastly into the water, and 
the actors walking in the secret chamber below would seem 
as though they were figures appearing in the water itself. 

In view of the severe and general condemnation of magical 
practices found throughout Holy Writ it is remarkable that 
the Pentateuchal narrative does not censure Joseph’s hydro- 
mantic arts. Indeed, except in the book Genesis, it is seldom 
that any forms of presaging or the use of charms are noted 
save with stern reprobation. In Isaias iii. 2, however, the 
Koésém, magician or diviner, is mentioned with singular 
respect. ‘‘Ecce enim dominator. Dominus exercituum 
auferet a Jerusalem et a Juda ualidum et fortem omne robur 
panis et omne robur aque, fortem, et uirum bellatorem, 
iudicem, et prophetam, et hariolum, et senem.” Here the 
Authorized Version deliberately mistranslates and obscures 
the sense: ‘‘ For, behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, doth 
take away from Jerusalem and from Judah, the stay and the 
staff, the whole stay of bread and the whole stay of water, 
the mighty man and the man of war, the judge and the 
prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient.” ‘‘ The Prudent ” 
is by no means a rendering of Kosém which “ hariolus ”’ 
perfectly represents. 

In the thirteenth chapter of Genesis we have a most 
detailed and striking narrative of sympathetic magic. Jacob, 
who is serving Laban, is to receive as a portion of his hire 
all the speckled and spotted cattle, all the brown among the 
sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats. But 
the crafty old Syrian prevented his son-in-law by removing 
to a distance, a journey of three days, all such herds as had 
been specified, ‘‘and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks. 
Thereupon Jacob took rods of green poplar, hazel, and 
chestnut, and peeled these rods in alternate stripes of white 
and bark, and he put them in the gutters in the watering- 
troughs when the flocks came to drink.”’ The animals duly 
copulated, and “‘ the flocks conceived before the rods, and 
brought forth cattle, ringstraked, speckled, and spotted.” 
Moreover, it was only when the stronger cattle conceived 
that Jacob set the rods before their eyes, so that eventually 
all the best of the herds fell to his share. The names of the 
trees are in themselves significant. The poplar in Roman 


THE WITCH IN HOLY WRIT 187 


folklore was sacred to Hercules,*! and as it grew on the 
banks of the river Acheron in Epirus it was connected with 
Acheron, the waters of woe in the underworld, a confused 
tradition which is undoubtedly of very early origin. So 
Pausanias has: ty Aeveny 0 ‘HpaxAys mepvxviav jwapa TOV 
"Axépovtra evpeto év Ocotpwtia rotayov' In seventeenth- 
century England poplar-leaves were accounted an important 
ingredient in hell-broths and charms. The hazel has been 
linked with magic from remotest antiquity, and the very 
name witch-hazel remains to-day. The chestnut-tree and 
its nuts seem to have been associated with some primitive 
sexual rites. The connexion is obscure, but beyond doubt 
traceable. In that most glorious marriage song, the Epitha- 
lamium of Catullus, as the boys sang their Fescennines of 
traditional obscenity nuts were scattered among the crowd.*? 
Petronius (Fragmentum XXXIII, ed. Buecheler, Berolini, 
1895) mentions chestnuts as an amatory gift: 


aurea mala mihi, dulcis mea Marcia, mittis 
mittis et hirsutae munera castaneae, 


In Genesis again is recorded a most interesting and 
instructive example of the belief in the magic efficacy of 
plants. ‘‘ And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest and 
found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother 
Leah” (xxx. 14 A.V.). Reuben brings his mother man- 
drakes (Love Apples), which Rachel desires to have. Where- 
upon Leah bargains with Rachel, and the latter for a portion 
of the fruit consents that Jacob shall that night return to 
the bed of his elder wife, who indeed conceives and in due 
time she bare Issachar. Leah ate of the mandrake as a 
charm to induce pregnancy, and no disapproval of such use 
is expressed. 

A similar theme is treated in Machiavelli’s famous master- 
piece of satirical comedy La Mandragola,** written between 
1518 and 1520, and performed by request before Leo X in 
the April of the latter year. It had already been acted in 
Florence. In this play Callimaco is bent upon securing as 
his mistress Lucrezia, the wife of a gullable doctor of laws, 
Messer Nicia, whose one wish in life is to get a son. Callimaco 
is introduced as a physician to Nicia, to whom he explains 
that a potion of mandragora administered to the lady will 


188 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


remove her sterility, but that it has fatal consequences to 
the husband. He must perish unless some other man be 
first substituted whose action will absorb the poison, and 
leave Lucrezia free to become the mother of a blooming 
family. This plot is fully worked out, and by the services 
of his supple confederates Callimaco is introduced to 
Lucrezia’s bedchamber as the necessary victim, and gains 
his desire. 

Mandrakes and mallows were potent in all forms of 
enchantment, and about the mandrake in particular has 
grown up a whole library of legend, which it would require 
much time and space thoroughly to investigate. Western 
lore is mainly of somewhat a grim character, but not entirely, 
and by the Orientals mandrake is regarded as a powerful 
aphrodisiac. So in Canticles VII, 18, we have: Mandragore 
dederunt odorem. (The mandrakes give a fragrant smell.) 
In antiquity mandrakes were used as an anesthetic. Dio- 
scorides alludes to the employment of this herb before 
patients have to be cut or burned; Pliny refers to its odour 
as causing sleep during an operation; Lucian speaks of it 
as used before cautery ; and both Galen and Isidorus have 
passages which mention its dormitive quality. The Shake- 
~ spearean allusions have rendered this aspect familiar to all. 

The Arabs and ancient Germans thought that a powerful 
spirit inhabited the plant, an idea derived, perhaps, from the 
fancied resemblance of the root to the human form. Ducagne 
has under Mandragore: ‘‘Pomi genus cuius mentio fit, 
Gen. xxx. 14. nostris etiam notis sub nomine Mandragores, 
quod pectore asseruatum sibi diuitiis acquirendis idoneum 
somniabunt.”’ And Littré quotes the following from an old 
chronicle of the thirteenth century: ‘Li dui compaignon 
[un couple d’éléphants] vont contre Orient prés du paradis 
terreste, tant que la femelle trouve une herbe que on apele 
mandragore, si en manjue, et si atize tant son masle qu’il en 
manjue avec li, et maintenant eschaufe la volenté de chascun, 
et s’entrejoignent 4 envers et engendrent un filz sanz plus.” 
In the Commentaria ad Historiam Caroli VI et VII it is 
related that several mandrakes found in the possession of 
Frére Richard, a Cordelier, were seized and burned as 
savouring of witchcraft. 

It seems certain that the teraphim, which Rachel stole 


THE WITCH IN HOLY WRIT 189 


from her father (Genesis xxxi, 19, and 31-85), and which when 
he was in pursuit she concealed by a subtle trick, were used 
for purposes of divination. From the relation of the incident 
it is obvious that they were regarded of immense value—he 
who had conveyed them away was, if found, to die the death 
—and invested with a mysterious sanctity. Centuries later, 
during the period of drastic reform, King Josias (639-608 B.c.) 
‘would no longer tolerate them : ‘‘ Moreover the workers with 
familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images [teraphim], 
and the idols, and all abominations that were spied in the 
land of Judah and in Jerusalem did Josiah put away ” 
(2 Kings xxii. 24. A.V.). The Vulgate has: ‘“‘Sed et 
pythones, et hariolos, et figuras idolorum, et immunditias, et 
abominationes, quee fuerant in terra Juda et. Jerusalem, 
abstulit Josias.”’ In Ezechiel xxi. 21, Esarhaddon is said to 
have divined by teraphim as well as by belomancy ; and in 
Zacharias (x. 2) the teraphim are stated on occasion to have 
deceived their inquirers, “‘simulacra locuta sunt inutile,” 
“the idols have spoken vanity.’ Notwithstanding this it is 
obvious from Osee (Hosea) iil. 4, that divination by teraphim 
was sometimes permitted: ‘‘ Dies multos sedebunt filii Israel 
sine rege, et sine principe, et sine sacrificio, et sine altari, et 
sine ephod, et sine teraphim.”’ ‘‘ The children of Israel shall 
abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and 
without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an 
ephod, and without teraphim.”’ 

The learned Cornelius a Lapide glossing on Genesis xxxi 
writes: ‘‘Idola, teraphim quod significat statuee humane 
siue humaneas formas habentes ut patet, I. Reg. xix.” The 
allusion is to the deception practised by Michal on Saul’s 
messengers, when putting one of the teraphim in bed and 
covering it with quilts she pretended it was David who lay 
sick. ‘“‘Secundo,’’ continues 4 Lapide, “‘nomen theraphim 
non appropriatum est in eas statuas, que opera demonorum 
deposci debent, ut patet Judicum, xviii, 18,” the reference 
being to the history of Micas. Calvin very absurdly says : 
‘*‘ Theraphim sunt imagines quales habent papiste.”’ 

Spencer** is of opinion that these teraphim were small 
images or figures, and the point seems conclusively settled by 
S. Jerome, who in his twenty-ninth Epistle, De Ephod et 
Teraphim, quotes 1 Kings xix. 15, and uses “ figuras siue 


1909 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


figurationes’”’ to translate uwoppouata of Aquila of Pontus. 
This writer was the author of a Greek version of the Old 
Testament published circa a.D. 128. About eight years before 
he seems to have been expelled from the Christian community, 
by whom he was regarded as an adept in magic. The work 
of Aquila, who studied in the school of Rabbi Akiba, the 
founder of Rabbinical Judaism, is said by S. Jerome to have 
attained such exactitude that it was a good dictionary to 
furnish the meaning of the obscurer Hebrew words. The 
Targum of Jonathan commenting upon Genesis xxxi. 19, 
puts forward the singular view that the teraphim, concealed 
by Rachel, consisted of a mummified human head. 

In the book ‘Tobias we have a detailed and important 
account of exorcism, and one, moreover, which throws consider- 
able light upon the demonology of the time. Tobias, the son 
of Tobias, is sent under the guidance of the unknown Angel, 
S. Raphael, to Gabelus in Rages of Media, to obtain the ten 
talents of silver left in bond by his father. Tobias, whilst 
bathing in the Tigris is attacked by a monstrous fish, of 
which he is told by his Angel protector to reserve the heart, 
liver, and gall; the first two of these are to prevent the 
devil who had slain seven previous husbands of Sara, the 
beautiful daughter of Raguel, from attacking him. They 
arrive at the house of Raguel, and Tobias seeks the hand 
of Sara. She, however, is so beloved by the demon Asmodeus 
that seven men who had in turn married her were by him 
put to death the night of the nuptials, before consummation. 
Tobias, however, by exorcism, by the odour of the burning 
liver of the fish, and by the help of S. Raphael, routs 
Asmodeus, “‘ Then the Angel Raphael took the Devil, and 
bound him in the desert of upper Egypt.’? The story which 
must be accepted as fact-narrative was originally written 
during the Babylonian exile in the early portion of the 
seventh century, B.c. It plainly shows that demons were 
considered to be capable of sexual love, such as was the love 
of the sons of God for the daughters of men recorded in 
Genesis (vi. 2). One may compare the stories of the Jinns 
in Arabian lore. Asmodeus is perhaps to be identified with 
the Persian Aéshma daéva, who in the Avesta is next to 
Angromainyus, the chief of the evil spirits. The introduction 
of Tobias’s dog should be remarked. The dog accompanies 


THE WITCH IN HOLY WRIT 191 


his master on the journey and when they return home ‘“‘ the 
dog, which had been with them in the way, ran before, and 
coming as if he had brought the news, shewed his joy by his 
fawning and wagging his tail.” Among the Persians a certain 
power over evil spirits was justly assigned to the faithful 
dog. 

The New Testament evidence for the reality of magic and 
divination is such that cannot be disregarded by any who 
accept the Christian revelation. 

In the Gospels we continually meet with possession by 
devils ; the miracle wrought in the country of the Gerasenes 
(Gergesenes) (S. Matthew viii. 28-34), the dumb man possessed 
by a devil (S. Matthew ix. 32-84), the healing of the lunatic 
boy who was obsessed (S. Matthew xvii. 14-21), the exorcism 
of the unclean spirit (S. Mark {. 28-27), the casting out of 
devils whom Christ suffered not to speak (S. Mark i. 82-84), 
the exorcism in the name of Jesus (S. Mark ix. 88), the demons 
who fled our Lord’s presence crying out ‘‘ Thou art Christ, 
the son of God ”’ (S. Luke iv. 41), the healing of those vexed 
with unclean spirits (S. Luke vi. 18), and many instances 
more. 

Very early in the Apostolic ministry appears one of the 
most famous figures in the whole history of Witchcraft, 
Simon, who is as Simon Magus, sorcerer and heresiarch. At 
the outbreak of that persecution (circa A.D. 87) of the 
Christian community in Jerusalem which began with the 
martyrdom of S. Stephen, when Philip the Deacon went down 
to Samaria, Simon, a native of Gitta, was living in that 
city. By his magic arts and by his mysterious doctrine, in 
which he announced himself as ‘‘ the great power of God,” 
he had made a name for himself and gained many adherents. 
He listened to Philip’s sermons, was greatly impressed by 
_ them, he saw with wonder the miracles of healing and the 
exorcisms of unclean spirits, and like many of his countrymen 
was baptized and united with the community of believers in 
Christ. But it is obvious that he only took this step in 
order to gain, as he hoped, greater magical power and thus 
increase his influence. For when the Apostles S. Peter and 
S. John came to Samaria to bestow upon those who had been 
baptized by Philip the outpouring of the Holy Ghost which 
was accompanied by heavenly manifestations Simon offered 


192 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


them money, saying, ‘“‘ Give me also this power,” which he 
obviously regarded as a charm or occult spell. 8S. Peter 
forthwith sharply rebuked the unholy neophyte, who, 
alarmed at this denunciation, implored the Apostles to pray 
for him. 

Simon is not mentioned again in the New Testament, but 
the first Christian writers have much to say concerning him. 
S. Justin Martyr, in his first Apologia (a.p. 1538-155) and in 
his dialogue Contra Tryphonem (before A.D. 161), describes 
Simon as a warlock who at the instigation of demons claimed 
to bea god. During the reign of the Emperor Claudius, Simon 
came to Rome, and by his sorceries won many followers 
who paid him divine honours. He was accompanied by a 
lewd concubine from Tyre, Helena, whom he claimed was 
Heavenly Intelligence, set free from bondage by himself 
the “ great power.” 

In the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies (probably second cen- 
tury) Simon appears as the chief antagonist of S. Peter, by 
whom his devilish practices are exposed and his enchantments 
dissolved. ‘The apocryphal Acts of S. Peter, which are of 
high antiquity,®® give in detail the well-known legend of the 
death of Simon Magus. By his spells the warlock had almost 
won the Emperor Nero to himself, but continually he was 
being foiled and thwarted owing to the intercession of the 
Apostle. At last when Cesar demanded one final proof of 
the truth of his doctrines, some miracle that might be 
performed at midday in the face of all Rome, Simon offered 
to take his flight into the heavens—a diabolical parody of 
the Ascension—so that men might know his power was full 
as mighty as that of Him whom the Christians worshipped as 
God. 

A mighty concourse gathered in the Forum : Vestal Virgins, 
Senators, Equites, their ladies, and a whole rabble of lesser 
folk. In the forefront of a new Imperial box sat the Lord Nero 
Claudius Cesar Augustus Germanicus, on one side his mother, 
Agrippina, on the other Octavia his wife. Magic staff in 
hand the magician advanced into the midst of the arena: 
muttering a spell he bade his staff await his return, and 
forthwith it stood upright, alone, upon the pavement. Then 
with a deep obeisance to the ruler of the known world Simon 
Magus stretched forth his arms, and a moment more with 


THE WITCH IN HOLY WRIT 198 


rigid limbs and stern set face he rose from the ground and 
began to float high in air toward the Capitol. Like some 
monstrous bird he rose, and hovered fluttering in space 
awhile. But among the throng stood S. Peter, and just as 
the sorcerer had reached the topmost pinnacles of the shrine 
of Juno Moneta, now Santa Maria in Aracceli, where brown 
Franciscans sing the praises of God, the first Pope of Rome 
kneeled down, lifted his right hand and deliberately made a 
mighty Sign of the Cross towards the figure who usurped the 
privileges of the Incarnate Son of Mary. Who shall say what 
hosts of hells fled at that moment? The wizard dropped 
swift as heavy lead ; the body whirled and turned in the air ; 
it crashed, broken and breathless, at the foot of the Emperor’s 
seat, which was fouled and bespattered with black gouts 
of blood. At the same moment with a ringing sound the 
staff fell prone on the pavement. The flag upon which 
S. Peter kneeled may be seen even until this day in the 
Church of Santa Francesca Romana. For, in order to 
commemorate the defeat of the warlock, Pope S. Paul I 
(757-767) built a church upon the site of his discomfiture, 
and in 850 Pope S. Leo IV reconstructed it as Santa Maria 
Nova, which gave place to the present fane dedicated in 
1612. 

But the fame of Simon Magus as a wizard has been 
swallowed up in his ill repute as a heretic ; so early do heresy 
and magic go hand in hand. He was the first Gnostic, whose 
disciples the Simonians, an Antinomian sect of the second 
century, indulged the sickest fantasies. Menander, the 
successor of Simon, proclaimed himself the Messiah and 
asserted that by his baptism immortality was conferred upon 
his followers. He also was regarded as a mighty magician, 
and the sect which was named after him, the Menandrians, 
seems to have lasted for no inconsiderable time. 

In his missionary journeys S. Paul was continually com- — 
bating Witchcraft. At Paphos he was opposed by the 
sorcerer Elymas; in Philippi a medium, ‘a certain damsel 
possessed with a spirit of divination,” “spiritum pythonem,” 
followed him along the streets erying out and naming him 
as “a servant of the most high God,’ until he exorcized the 
spirit ; at Ephesus, a hotbed of sorcery and superstition, he 
converted many diviners and witches, who cleansed their 

Oo 


194 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


souls by the Sacrament of Penance, and burned their con- 
juring books, a library of no mean value. It amounted 
indeed to fifty thousand drachmas (£2000), and one may 
suppose that in addition to manuscripts there were amulets 
of silver and gold, richly wrought and jewelled. In Ephesus, 
also, had foregathered a large number of vagabond Jews, 
exorcists. The chief characteristic of a Jewish exorcism was 
the recitation of names believed to be efficacious, principally 
names of good angels, which were used either alone, or in 
combination with El (God); and, indeed, a blind reliance 
upon the sound of mere names had long been a settled 
practice with these amateur sorcerers, who considered that 
the essence of their charms lay in the use of particular names 
declaimed in a particular order, which differed on several 
occasions. It was this belief, no doubt, that induced the 
seven sons of Sceva, who had witnessed S. Paul’s exorcisms 
in the name of Jesus, to try upon their own account the 
formula ‘‘I conjure thee by Jesus whom Paul preacheth,”’ 
an experiment disastrous to their credit. For in one case the 
patient cried out ‘‘ Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who 
are ye?” and leaped upon them with infernal strength, 
beating and wounding them, so that they fled for safety from 
the house, their limbs bruised and their garments torn, to 
the great scandal of the neighbourhood. 

For the fact of demoniac possession the authority of 
Christ Himself is plainly pledged; whilst Witchcraft is 
explicitly ranked by S. Paul with murder, sedition, hatred, 
and heresy (Galatians v. 20-21). S. John, also, twice 
mentions sorcerers in a hideous catalogue of sinners. There 
can be no doubt whatsoever that the reality of Witchcraft 
is definitely maintained by the New Testament writers,*® 
and any denial of this implicitly involves a rejection of the 
truth of the Christian revelation. 

Among the Jews of a later period, and probably even 
to-day, various diseases are said to be induced by demons, 
who, it is instructive to notice, haunt marshy places, damp 
and decayed houses, latrines, squalid alleys, foul atmospheres 
where sickness is bred and ripened. 

Josephus (0b. A.D. 100) relates that God taught Solomon 
how demons were to be expelled, a “science useful and 
sanitative to men.” He also gives an account of Eliezar, a 


THE WITCH IN HOLY WRIT 195 


celebrated exorcist of the time, whom, in the presence of the 
Emperor Vespasian, the historian actually saw casting out 
evil spirits. The operator applied to the nose of the possessed 
a ring having attached to it a root which Solomon is said 
to have prescribed—“ Baaras,” a herb of magical properties, 
and one dangerous for the uninitiate to handle. As the 
devils came forth Eliezar caused them to pass into a basin 
filled with water, which was at once poured away. It may 
be noticed also that demonology plays an important part 
in the Book of Enoch (before 170 B.c.). Even in the Mishna 
there are undoubted traces of magic, and in the Gemara 
demonology and sorcery loom very largely. Throughout 
the Middle Ages Jewish legend played no insignificant part 
in the history of Witchcraft, and, especially in Spain, until 
the nineteenth century at least, there were prosecutions, not 
so much for the observance of Hebrew ceremonies as is often 
suggested and supposed, but for the practice of the dark and 
hideous traditions of Hebrew magic. Closely connected with 
these ancient sorceries are those ritual murders, of which 
a learned Premonstratensian Canon of Wilthin, Adrian 
Kembter, writing in 1745, was able to enumerate no less 
than two-and-fifty,?” the latest of these having taken place 
in 1650, when at Cadan in Bohemia, Matthias, a lad of four 
years old, was killed by certain rabbis with seven wounds. 
In many cases the evidenee is quite conclusive that the 
body, and especially the blood of the victim, was used for 
magical purposes. Thus with reference to little S. Hugh 
of Lincoln, after various very striking details, the chronicler 
has: ‘‘ Et cum exspirasset puer, deposuerunt corpus de cruce, 
et nescitur qua ratione, euiscerarunt corpusculum; dicitur 
autem, quod ad magicas artes exercendas.” In 1261 at 
Forcheim in Bavaria the blood of a murdered boy was 
used to sprinkle certain thresholds and doors. In 1285 at 
Munich a witch was convicted of selling Christian children 
to the Jews, who carefully preserved the blood in curious 
vessels for secret rites. In 1494 at Tyrnau twelve vampires 
were executed for having opened the veins of a boy whom 
they had snared, and having drunk his warm blood thence 
whilst he was yet alive. A deed of peculiar horror was 
discovered at Szydlow in 1597 when the victim was put to 
death in exquisite tortures, the blood and several members 


196 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


of the body being partaken of by the murderers. In almost 
every case the blood was carefully collected, there can be 
no doubt for magical purposes, the underlying idea being the 
precept of the Mosaic law: Anima enim omnis carnis in 
sanguine est :38 For the life of all flesh is in the blood thereof 


NOTES TO CHAPTER V 


1 Khartummim. The same word is used to describe the magicians whom 
Pharaoh summoned to interpret his dream, Genesis xli. 8, where the Vulgate 
has coniectores. Hxodus viii. 11, the Vulgate reads: ‘‘ Uocauit autem Pharao 
sapientes et maleficos.”’ 

2 It is perhaps worth mentioning that even the most modernistic com- 
mentators assign the history of Balaam to the oldest document of the 
Hexateuch, that they call the Jehovistic. 

3 In his commentary on the ninth chapter of the prophet Osee (Hosea), 
S. Jerome says: ‘‘ Ingressi [sunt] ad Beel-Phegor, idolum Moabitarum quem 
nos PRIAPUM possumus appelare.’? And Rufinus on the same prophet has : 
‘* Beel-Phegor figuram Priapi dixerunt tenere.’’ (They entered in unto 
Beel-Phegor, the idol of the Moabites, whom we may identify with PRIAPUS. 
. . . Beel-Phegor is said to have had the same shape as Priapus.) 

4 Balaam hariolus a Domino mittitur ut decipiat Balac filium Beor. In 
Ezechielem, IV. xiv. Migne, Patres Latini, XXV.p.118. (Baalam, a sooth- 
sayer, is sent by God to deceive Balac, son of Beor.) 

5 Balaam fuisse prophetam non Dei, sed diaboli constat. . . . Fuit ipse 
magus, et demonis alloquium querebat, eumque consulere. 

6 The word is usually found with yidde ’onim (from yada, ‘‘ to know,’’) 
and they are generally considered to be identical in meaning. But W. R. 
Smith, Journ. Phil., XIV. 127, makes the following distinction: Yidde ’oni 
is a familiar spirit, one known to him who ealls it up; the *6bh is any spirit 
who may be invoked by a spell and foreed to answer questions. 

7 Divination, et la science des présages, Paris, 1875. p. 161 ff. 

8 History of the People of Israel, 3 vols., London, 1888-91. I. p. 347. 

® Cf. Ovid, Metamorphoseon, IV, 412-3, of bats : 

Conatzeque loqui, minimam pro corpore uocem 
Emittunt ; peraguntque leues stridore querelas. 

10 Josephus says that Samuel told the witch it was Saul. 

11 Migne, Patres Greci, LX XX. p. 589. 

12 Plerique putant Saulem signum accepisse de terra et de profundo inferni 
quando Samuelem per incantationes et artes magicas uisus est suscitasse. 
Migne, Patres Latinit, XXIV. p. 106. 

13. . . inspirantur diabolico spiritu. Has autem dicunt Hebrei maleficis 
artibus eruditas per necromantias et pythicum spiritum qualis fuit illa que 
uisa est suscitare animam Samuelis. Idem, XXV. p. 114. 

14 Migne, Patres Greci, XLV. pp. 107-14. 

15 Aaiuoves yap hoav of karacxnuarifoures éavrods els TO TOD Lamounr mpdowmov. 
Idem, XXX. p. 497. 

16 Et credo quia [spiritus immundi] mendacio possunt ; nec enim pythonico 
tune spiritui minus liciut animam Samuelis effingere. (De Anima, LVII.) 
Migne, Patres Latini, II. p. 749. 

17 "ANAd yéypamrat, orl yyw Laovr bre Dapounr éore. 

18 érel od divarar Wevdéobar 7 Tpadyn. ra de pruara THs padjs éorly* Kal eldev 
) yuh Tov Samovnr. (In librum Regum. Homilia II.) Migne, Patres Greci, 
XII. p. 1013. 

19 kal dre pévovow al Puxal, arédeta buty éx Tou Kal Thy Dapounr Wuxhv KrAnOFvac 
Umd THs eyyaoTpiumvdov, ws HElwow 6 Laovi, (In I. Regum. XXVIII.) Idem, XII. 

20 Samuel post mortem, secundum Scripture Testimonium futura non 
tacuit. I. Regum. XXVIII. 17 et seg. (In Lucam. I. 33.) Migne, Patres 
Latint. XV. p. 1547. 


THE WITCH IN HOLY WRIT 197 


*} Imago Samuelis mortui Saul regi uera prenuntiauit. Idem, XXXIV. 
p. 52. And De Cura, XL. p. 606. 

** Nam Samuel propheta defunctus uiuo Sauli etiam regi futura preedixit. 

°8 Whiston’s translation. Ed. 1825. Vol. I, p. 263. 

24 So 1 Kings (Samuel) xv. 23: ‘ Because it is like the sin of witchcraft, 
to rebel.’’ Heresy and rebellion are fundamentally the same. 

2° Schrader, Die Keilenscheiften und das alte Testament, Giessen, 2nd ed., 
1883. 

6. . . raconta ses rapts d’enfants, ses hideuses tactiques, ses stimulations 
infernales, ses meurtres impétueux, ses implacables viols; obsédé par la 
vision des ses victimes, il décrivit leurs agonies ralenties ou hatées, leurs 
appels et leurs rales; il avoua s’étre vautré dans les élastiques tiédeurs des 
intestins ; il confessa qu’il avait arraché des cceurs par des plaies élargies, 
ouvertes, telles que des fruits miirs. Lda-Bas, J. K. Huysmans, c. xviii. 

27 Healey’s translation, 1610. 

28 De Magia, XLVII. 

29 The Primitive Inhabitants of Scandinavia, Sven Nilsson. 3rd edition. 
1868. p. 241. 

8° The original title is xara racdv alpécewv éreyxos. A Refutation of all 
Heresies. The first book had long been known; books IV-X, which had 
been discovered a short time previously, were first published in 1851 (Oxford) 
by Miller as the work of Origen, but edited by Duncker and Schneidewin 
as by Hippolitus, eight years later, Géttingen, 1859. The first chapters of 
the Fourth, and the whole of the Second and Third Books are still missing. 

*} Theocritus, II. 121. Kpart & éxwv detxav ‘Hpaxdéos lepdy éepvos. Vergil. 
Eclogue VIII, 61: Populus Alcide gratissima. A#neid, VIII, 276: Herculea 
bicolor quem populus umbra .. . 

*° Pliny (Historia Naturalis, XV. 86) says walnuts were thrown, and it 
appears from an inscription that this custom prevailed on birthdays as well 
as at weddings. But originally, at any rate, chestnuts were also used. In 
time the meaning became obscured, and as nuts were used in all kinds of 
games they merely became synonymous with playthings. 

83 The play is referred to in 1520 as Messer Nicia, and the first edition 
printed at Florence circa 1524 has the title The Comedy of Callimaco and 
Lucrezia, but the Prologue definitely gives the name La Mandragola (The 
Mandrake), and this is used in all later editions. The story has been imitated 
by La Fontaine; the play itself (which is still acted in Italy) has been 
repeatedly translated, at least six times into French and five times into 
German, but as yet no English version has been published. 

84 De Legibus Hebreorum ritualibus earumque rationibus, 2 vols., Tubinge, 
1732. 

°° Not later than a.p. 200. They were well known to Commodian, who 
wrote about a.p. 250. 

86 This is, of course, the view of the Fathers, and even later theological 
writers (e.g. Alfred Edersheim, Delitzsch, Rev. Walter Scott) accept this 
literal truth. 

*7 In his book Acta pro Ueritate Martyrii corporis, & cultus publici 
B. Andree Rinnensis, Innsbruck, 1745. Blessed Andrew, a child, was killed 
at Rinn in the Tyrol, 12 July, 1462. A systematic investigation would, no 
doubt, wellnigh double the number of instances recorded by Kembter, and 
there are 15 for the eighteenth, 39 for the nineteenth century. In 1913. 
Mendil Beiliss was tried upon the charge of ritually murdering a Russian 
lad, Yushinsky. 

38 Leviticus xvii. 14. 


CHAPTER VI 
Dr1aBouiic PossEssIoN AND MODERN SPIRITISM 


THE phenomenon of diabolic possession, the mere possibility 
of which materialists and modernists in recent years have for 
the most part stoutly denied, has, nevertheless, been believed 
by all peoples and at all periods of the earth’s history. In 
truth he who accepts the spiritual world is bound to realize 
all about him the age-long struggle for empery of discarnate 
evil ceaselessly contending with a thousand cunning sleights 
and a myriad vizardings against the eternal unconquerable 
powers of good. Nature herself bears witness to the contest ; 
disease and death, cruelty and pain, ugliness and sin, are 
all evidences of the mighty warfare, and it would be surprising 
indeed if some were not wounded in the fray—for we cannot 
stand apart, each man, S. Ignatius says, must fight under 
one of the two standards—if some even did not fall. 

The ancient Egyptians, whose religion of boundless 
antiquity is pre-eminent in,the old world for its passionate 
earnestness, its purity, and lofty idealism certainly held that 
some diseases were due to the action of evil spirits or demons, 
who in exceptional circumstances had the power of entering 
human bodies and of vexing them in proportion to the 
opportunities consciously or unconsciously given to their 
malign natures and influences. Moreover, the Egyptians 
were regarded as being supremely gifted in the art of curing 
the diseases caused by demoniacal possession, and one note- 
worthy instance of this was inscribed upon a stele and set up 
in the temple of the god Khonsu at Thebes so that all men 
might learn his might and his glory.1. When King Rameses II 
was in Mesopotamia the various princes made him many 
offerings of gold and gems, and amongst other came the 
Prince of Bekhten, who brought his daughter, the fairest 
maiden of that land. When the king saw he loved her and 
bestowed upon her the title of ‘‘ Royal spouse, ehief lady, 


198 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 199 


Ra-neferu ”’ (the beauties of Ra, the Sun-god), and taking 
her back to Egypt he married her with great pomp and 
hallowed solemnity. In the fifteenth year of the king’s reign 
there arrived at his court an ambassador from the Prince 
of Bekhten, bearing rich presents and beseeching him ‘‘ on 
behalf of the lady Bent-ent-resht, the younger sister of the 
royal spouse R4a-neferu, for, behold, an evil disease hath laid 
hold upon her body, “‘ wherefore,” said the envoy, “‘ I beseech 
thy Majesty to send a physician? to see her.’? Rameses 
ordered the books of the “‘ double house of life ’’ to be brought 
and the wise men to choose from their number one who 
might be sent to Bekhten. They selected the sage Tehuti- 
em-heb, who in company with the ambassador forthwith 
departed on their journey, and when they had arrived 
the Egyptian priest soon found the lady Bent-ent-resht 
was possessed of a demon or spirit over which he was 
powerless. Wellnigh in despair the Prince of Bekhten sent 
again to the king begging him to dispatch even a god to his 
help. 

When the ambassador arrived a second time Rameses was 
worshipping in the temple of Khonsu Nefer-hetep at Thebes, 
and he at once besought that deity to allow his counterpart 
Khonsu to go to Bekhten and to deliver the daughter of the 
prince of that country from the demon who possessed her. 
Khonsu Nefer-hetep granted the request, and a fourfold 
measure of magical power was imparted to the statue of the 
god which was to go to Bekhten. The god, seated in his boat, 
and five other boats with figures of gods in them, accompanied 
by a noble attendance of horses and chariots upon the right 
and the left, set out for Bekhten, where in due course they 
were received with great honour. The god Khonsu was 
brought to the place where the princess was, magical cere- 
monies were performed, and the demon _ incontinently 
departed. Khonsu remained in Bekhten three years, four 
months, and five days, being worshipped with the utmost 
veneration. One night, however, the Prince had a dream 
in which he saw a hawk of gold issue from the sacred shrine 
and wing its way towards Egypt. In the morning the 
Kgyptian priests interpreted his dream as meaning that the 
god now wished to return, and accordingly he was escorted 
back in superb state, and with him were sent grateful gifts 


200 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


and thank offerings innumerable to be laid in the temple of 
Khonsu Nefer-hetep at Thebes. 

The Greeks of the earlier civilization were inclined generally 
to attribute all sickness to the gods, who again often by this 
particular means took almost immediate revenge upon those 
who had insulted their images, profaned their sanctuaries, 
or derided their worship. Thus Pentheus who resists the 
introduction of the mysteries of Dionysus into Thebes is 
driven mad by the affronted deity. The madness of Ajax, 
and that of the daughters of Proetus,4 who imagined them- 
selves changed into cows, shows us that this belief went back 
to heroic times. In later days Demaratus and his brother 
Alopecos were driven lunatic (zapadponjoay) after having 
found the statue of Artemis Orthosia, and this was considered 
to be the power of the goddess. The frenzy which attacked 
Quintus Fulvius was regarded as a punishment, a possession 
by evil spirits on account of his sacrilege in having stolen 
the marble roof of the temple of Juno Lacinia at Locri.® 

Pythagoras taught that the ailments both of men and 
of animals are due to demons who throng the regions of the 
air, and this doctrine does no more than state clearly what 
had been more or less vaguely believed from the dawn of 
human history. Wherefore Homer in the Odyssey, speaking 
of a man who is racked by a sore disease, says that a hateful 
demon is tormenting him: otvyepos 6é of &xpae Sdatuwr, 
V, 896. (But a hateful demon griped him fast.) The word 
Kakodaimovia, possession by an evil spirit, in Aristophanes signi- 
fies “‘raving madness,” and the verb xaxodaipovaw, to be 
tormented by an evil spirit, is used by Xenophon, Demos- 
thenes, Dinarchus, and Plutarch? amongst other authors. 

Many philosophers believed that each man has a protecting 
daimon, who in some sense personifies his individuality. It 
followed that lunatics and the delirious were afflicted with 
madness by these spirits who guided them, and accordingly 
the Greek names for those distraught are highly significant : 
evepyoumevot (in later Greek, persons possessed of an evil 
spirit), damowodnyrro (influenced by devils), OedAy7To1, 
OeoBraBes (stricken of God), Oeduaves (maddened by the 
gods); and so Euripides has Avoca OBeouanjs, and again 
Ocouavns rotruos.8 The very name maria given by the 
Greeks to madness was derived from the root-word man, 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 201 


men,® which occurs in the Latin Manes, and indeed the 
Romans thought that a madman was tormented by the 
goddess Mania, the mother of the Lares, the hallucinations 
of lunatics being taken to be spectres who pursued them.?° 
And so a madman was laruarum plenus, larwatus,4 one whom 
phantoms disturbed ; as in Plautus, where the doctor says : 
‘What kind of a disease is this? Explain. Unfold, old sire, 
I say. Art thou crazed (laruatus) or lunatic? Tell me now.”!2 

The frantic exaltation which thrilled the Galli, and the 
Corybantes when they celebrated the Dionysia, seems to 
have been epidemic, and was universally attributed to divine 
possession. There are many allusions to the connexion 
between the rites of Cybele and Dionysus. Apollodorus!® 
says Dionysus was purified from madness by Rhea at the 
Phrygian Cybela, and was then initiated into her rites and 
took her dress; thence he passed into Thrace with a train 
of Bacchanals and Satyrs. Strabo,!4 on the other hand, 
thinks the rites were brought from Thrace by colonists from 
that country into Phrygia; he even quotes a fragment from 
the Edoni of Auschylus!® as proving the identity of the 
cultus of Dionysus and Cybele. So also we have in Euripides, 


Bacche, 58, 
Up, and wake the sweet old sound, 
The clang that I and mystic Rhea found, 
The Timbrel of the Mountains. 16 


It is interesting to remark that Nicander of Claros,17 who 
was a physician, in his Alexipharmaca (’AreE:pappaka), 
speaking of a particular form of lunacy, compares the shrieks 
uttered by patients with those of a priestess of Rhea, when 
on the ninth day she makes all whom she encounters in 
the streets tremble at the hideous how] of the Idzean Mother ; 
Kepvopopos faxopos Pwulctpia ‘“Peins is the exact phrase.}8 

In the Hippolytus (141 sqq.) the Chorus speaking to 
Phaedra says : 

Is this some spirit, O child of man? 
Doth Hecat hold thee perchance, or Pan ? 


Doth She of the Mountains work her ban, 
Or the Dread Corybantes bind thee ? !9 


And in the Medea (1171-2) we have: ‘‘ She-seemed, I wot, 
to be one frenzied, inspired with madness by Pan or some 
other of the gods.’’?° , 


202 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


Here twos Oeav, says Paley, alludes to Dionysus or 
Cybele. Madness was sometimes thought to be sent by Pan 
for any neglect of his worship, so in the Rhesus Hector 
cries (86-7): ‘‘ Can it be that you are scared by the fear- 
causing stroke of Pan of old Kronos’s line ? ’’?4 

Aretzeus, the medical writer, who is especially celebrated 
for his accuracy of diagnosis, in his De signis chronicorum 
morborum, VI, describes Corybantic frenzy as a mental 
malady and says that patients may be soothed and even 
cured by the strains of soft music.22. We have here then the 
same remedy as was applied in the case of Saul, whom, we 
are told, “‘ an evil spirit from the Lord troubled,’’?? and to 
whose court David, the sweet harper, was summoned. This 
seems to be the only instance of demoniac possession in the 
Old Testament and although the Hebrew word ruah need 
not absolutely imply a personal influence, if we may judge 
from Josephus?4 the Jews certainly gave the word that 
meaning in this very passage. 

It may be well here clearly to explain the difference 
between possession and obsession, two technical terms some- 
times confounded. By obsession is meant that the demon 
attacks a man’s body from without ;?° by possession is meant 
that he assumes control of it from within. Thus 8. Jerome 
describes the obsessions which beset S. Hilarion: ‘“‘ Many 
were his temptations ; day and night did the demons change 
and renew their snares. . . . As he lay down how often did 
not nude women encircle him? When he was an hungered 
how often a plenteous board was spread before him ? ’’?6 
S. Antony the Great, also was similarly attacked: ‘“ The 
devil did not let to attack him, at night assuming the form 
of some maiden and imitating a woman’s gestures to deceive 
Antony.’’?? These painful phenomena are not uncommon in 
the lives of the Saints. Very many examples might be cited, 
but one will suffice, that of S. Margaret of Cortona,?® the 
Franciscan penitent,?® who was long and terribly tormented : 
‘* Following her to and fro up and down her humble cell as 
she wept and prayed [the devil] sang the most filthy songs, 
and lewdly incited Christ’s dear handmaid, who with tears 
was commending herself to the Lord, to join him in trolling 
forth bawdy catches . . . but her prayers and tears finally 
routed the foul spirit and drove him far away.”°° The 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 203 


theologians, however, warn us to be very cautious in dealing 
with so difficult a matter, and the supreme authority of 
S. Alphonsus Liguori advises us that by far the greater part 
of these obsessions are distressing hallucinations, neuras- 
thenia, imagination, hysteria, in a word, pathological: ‘‘ It 
is advisable always to be very suspicious of such diabolic 
attacks, for it cannot be gainsaid that for the most part 
they are fancy, or the effect of imagination, or weakness, 
especially when women are concerned.’?!_ Dom Dominic 
Schram presses home the same point with equal emphasis : 
‘“ Very often what are supposed to be demoniacal obsessions 
are nothing else than natural ailments, or morbid imaginings, 
or even distractions or actual lunacy. Wherefore it is 
necessary to deal with these cases most carefully, until the 
peculiar symptoms clearly show that it is actual obsession.’?22 

Demoniac possession is frequently presented to us in the 
New Testament, and we have the authority of Christ Himself 
as to its reality. The infidel argument is to deny the possi- 
bility of possession in any circumstances, either on the 
hypothesis that there are no evil spirits in existence, or that 
they are powerless to influence the human body in the 
manner described. But whatever view Rationalists may 
adopt—and they are continually shifting their ground—no 
reader of the Scriptural narrative can deny that Christ by 
word and deed showed His entire belief in possession by evil 
spirits. And if Christ were divine how came He to foster 
and encourage a delusion? Why did He not correct it ? 
Only two answers can be supposed. Either He was ignorant 
of a religious truth, or He deliberately gave instructions that 
He knew to be false, frequently acting in a way which was 
something more than misleading. To a Christian either of 
these explanations is, of course, unthinkable. The theory 
of accommodation formulated by Winer ** may be accepted 
by Modernists, but will be instantly condemned by all others. 
Accommodation is understood as the toleration of harmless 
illusions of the day having little or no connexion with religion. 
Kiven if this fine piece of profanity were allowed, which, of 
course, must not be the case, the argument could not be 
applied here, indeed it seems wholly repugnant even in 
regard to a Saint, but entirely impossible in consideration of 
the divinity of Christ, 


204 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


The victims of possession were sometimes deprived of speech 
and sight: ‘‘ Then was offered to him one possessed of a 
devil, blind and dumb: and he healed him, so that he spoke 
and saw’’ (S. Matthew xii. 22). Sometimes they had lost 
speech alone: ‘‘ Behold, they brought him a dumb man, 
possessed with a devil, and after the devil was cast out the 
dumb man spoke” (S. Matthew ix. 32, 33); also ‘“‘ And he 
was casting out a devil, and the same was dumb: and when 
he had cast out the devil the dumb spoke ”’ (S. Luke xi. 14). 
In many cases the mere fact of possession is mentioned 
without further details: ‘“‘ they presented to him such as 
were possessed by devils, and lunatics ... and he cured 
them ”’ (S. Matthew iv. 24); ‘‘ and when evening was come, 
they brought to him many that were possessed with devils, 
and he cast out the spirits with his word ”’ (S. Matthew viii. 
16); ‘“‘ And, behold a woman of Canaan, who came out of 
those coasts, crying out, said to him: Have mercy on me, 
O Lord, thou son of David: my daughter is grievously 
troubled by a devil . . . Then Jesus answering, said to her: 
O woman, great is thy faith: be it done to thee as thou wilt : 
and her daughter was cured from that hour ” (S. Matthew xy. 
22-28); *“* And when it was evening after sunset they brought 
to him all that were ill and that were possessed with devils ”’ ; 
‘* And he cast out many devils, and he suffered them not to 
speak, because they knew him’”’; ‘‘ And he was preaching 
in their synagogues, and in all Galilee, and casting out 
devils ’’ (S. Mark i. 82, 84, 89); ‘‘ And the unclean spirits, 
when they saw him, fell down before him: and they cried, 
saying: Thou art the Son of God” (S. Mark iii. 11, 12); 
‘And devils went out from many, crying out and saying: 
Thou art the Son of God” (S. Luke iv. 41); ‘‘ And they 
that were troubled with unclean spirits were cured ” (S. Luke 
vi. 18); ‘‘ And in that same hour, he cured many of their 
diseases, and hurts, and evil spirits” (S. Luke vii. 21). 
The exorcism of the man “ who had a devil now a very long 
time,” and who dwelt among the tombs in the country of 
the Gerasens (Gadarenes) is related by S. Luke (viii. 27-89). 
The possessed is tormented by so many unclean spirits that 
they proclaim their name as Legion: he is endowed with 
supernatural strength so that he breaks asunder bonds 
and fetters: the devils recognize Christ as God, and Our 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 205 


Lord converses with them, asking how they are called. 
Immediately the devils have been cast out the man is 
clothed, peaceable, reasonable, and quiet, “in his right 
mind.”’ 

At the foot of Mount Tabor a young man is brought by 
his father to be healed. The youth is possessed of a dumb 
spirit, ‘‘ who, wheresoever he taketh him dasheth him, and 
he foameth, and gnasheth with the tecth, and pineth away.” 
When Jesus approached, ‘“‘ immediately the spirit troubled 
him; and being thrown down upon the ground, he rolled 
about foaming.” The patient had been thus afflicted “‘ from 
his infancy, and oftentimes hath he cast him into the fire and 
into waters to destroy him.” Our Lord threatened the 
spirit, and forthwith expelled it. (S. Mark ix. 14-28.) It 
should be noticed that it is the demons who are addressed 
on these occasions, not their victims. In the face of this 
catena of Biblical evidence and the various circumstances 
attending these exorcisms it is impossible to maintain that 
the possessed suffered merely from epilepsy, paralysis, acute 
mania, or any other such disease. In fact the Evangelists 
carefully separate natural maladies from diabolic possession : 
‘ He cast out the spirits with his word: and all that were 
sick he healed” (S. Matthew viii. 16); ‘ They brought to 
him all that were ill and that were possessed with devils . . . 
and he healed many that were troubled with divers diseases 
and he cast out many devils ”’ (S. Mark i. 82, 34). In the 
original Greek the distinction is still more clearly and 
unmistakably shown: aytas Tovs Kaxas éxovras Kal Tovs 
damovgouevovs. Saint Matthew, again, differentiates : 
“they presented to him all sick people that were taken 
with divers diseases [zoxiAas vécos] and torments 
[Sacavors] and such as were possessed by devils [da:mou- 
Couevovs] and lunatics [ceAnviafouevovs] and those who 
had the palsy [wapadvtixovs] and he cured them,” iv. 24. 
Moreover, Our Lord expressly distinguishes between posses- 
sion and natural disease; ‘‘ Behold I cast out devils and do 
cures,” are the Divine Words; iSov é@Badd\o Saudna Kat 
laces amoteA@ (S. Luke xiii. 32). 

That the demoniacs were often afflicted with other diseases 
as well is highly probable. The demons may have attacked 
those who were already sick, whilst the very fact of obsession 


206 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


or possession would of itself produce disease as a natural 


consequence. 
According to S. Matthew x. 1, Our Lord gave special 
powers to the Apostles to exorcize demons: ‘*‘ And having 


called his twelve disciples together, he gave them power over 
unclean spirits to cast them out, and to heal all manner of 
diseases, and all manner of infirmities.”’? And S. Peter, when 
describing the mission and miracles of Christ, stresses this 
very point: ‘“ Jesus of Nazareth: how God anointed him 
with the Holy Ghost, and with power, who went about doing 
good, and healing all that were possessed by the devil,” 
Tous Katadvvactevouevous Uro Tov dtaBoroy (Acts x. 88). 
Our Lord Himself directly appeals to His power over evil 
spirits as a proof of His Messiahship: ‘‘If I by the finger 
of God cast out devils; doubtless the kingdom of God is 
come upon you”; e de év daxtiAw Oceod éxBadrtr\w Ta 
daimona, apa épOacev éf tuas 7 Bacirela Tov Ocod (S. Luke 
i020); 

Whilst yet on earth Christ empowered the Apostles to 
cast out demons in His Name, and in His last solemn charge 
He promised that the same delegated power should be 
perpetuated: ‘“‘ These signs shall follow them that believe : 
in my name they shall cast out devils’; onueia de Tots 
TigTevoacl TavTAa TapaKkoAovOyce’ ev TW Ovow“aTl pov Satmovia 
exBarovor (S. Mark xvi. 17.) But the efficacy of exorcism 
was conditional, not absolute as in the case of Our Lord 
Himself, for He explained, upon an occasion when the 
Apostles seemed to fail, that certain spirits could only be 
expelled by prayer and fasting. Moreover, a perfect belief 
and complete command are necessary for the exorcizer. Tore 
mpocéeAOorres of paOytat TH ‘Incod cat (diay etrov, Avatl imeis ovK 
novvjOnnev éxBareiv avto; 6 dé "Iycots Neyer adrois, Ata tiv 
odryomiaTiay Uma’... TOUTO bé TO yévos OvK ExTopeveTat EC MH 
év Tpocevxy Kat yyoteia (S. Matthew xvii. 19-21). S. Paul, 
and no doubt the other Apostles and Disciples, regularly made 
use of this exorcizing power. Thus, at Philippi, where the girl 


‘having a pythonical spirit . . . who brought to her masters 
much gain by divining ” (radioxny TWa €xovcay ev ka 

Wd > - - Ul “~ 
Tv0wva . . + TIS épyaciay TroAAHV TApelLXe TOS KUpLOls auTAS 


pavTevoxevn)*®* met S. Paul and S. Luke and proclaimed them 
as servants of the most high God, S. Paul “ being grieved, 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 207 


turned, and said to the spirit : I command thee, in the name 
of Jesus Christ, to go out from her. And he went out the 
same hour” (Acts xvi. 16-18). And at Ephesus, a hot-bed 
of magic and necromancy, ‘‘ God wrought by the hand of 
Paul more than common miracles. So that even there were 
brought from his body to the sick, handkerchiefs and aprons, 
and the diseases departed from them, and the wicked spirits 
went out of them” (Acts xix. 11, 12). Those who do not 
imagine that the powers Our Lord perpetually bestowed 
upon the Apostles and their followers abruptly ceased with 
the thirty-first verse of the twenty-eighth chapter of The 
Acts of the Apostles, realize that the charisma of exorcism 
has continued through the ages, and in truth the Church 
has uninterruptedly practised it until the present day. 

The Exorcist is ordained by the Bishop for this office, 
ordination to which is the second of the four minor orders 
of the Western Church. Pope Cornelius (251-252) mentions 
in his letter to Fabius that there were then in the Roman 
Church forty-two acolytes, and fifty-two exorcists, readers, 
and door-keepers, and the institution of these orders together 
with the organization of their functions, seems to have been 
the work of the predecessor of Cornelius, Pope Saint Fabian 
the Martyr (236-251). 

The rite of the Ordination of Exorcists, ‘‘ De Ordinatione 
Exorcistarum,”’ is as follows : First, the Book of Exorcisms, 
or in its place the Pontifical or Missal must be ready at hand ; 
Pro Exorcistis ordinandis paretur liber exorcismorum, cuius 
loco dari potest Pontificale uel Missale (A Book of Exorcisms 
must be prepared for those who are to be ordained Exorcists. 
Howbeit in place thereof the Pontifical or the Missal may be 
handed to them) runs the rubric. When the Lectors have 
been ordained, the Bishop resuming his mitre takes his place 
upon his seat or faldstool at the Epistle side of the altar, 
and the Missal with the bugia being brought by his acolytes 
he proceeds to read the Gradual, or (if it be within the Octave 
of Pentecost) the Alleluia. Meantime the Gradual is sung 
by the choir. When it is finished, he rises, takes off his 
mitre, and turning to the altar intones the third collect. 
He next sits again, resumes his mitre, and the third Lection 
is read. Two chaplains assist him with bugia and book 
whence he reads the Lection. The Archdeacon now summons 


208 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


the ordinandi, who approach, holding lighted tapers in their 
hands, and kneel before the Bishop, who solemnly admonishes 
them with the prayer : 

‘Dearest children who are about to be ordained to the 
office of Exorcists, ye must duly know what ye are about 
to undertake. For an Exorcist must cast out devils; and 
announce to the people that those that may not be present 
at the sacrifice should retire; and at the altar minister 
water to the priest. Ye receive also the power of placing 
your hand upon energumens, and by the imposition of your 
hands and the grace of the Holy Spirit and the words of 
exorcism unclean spirits are driven out from the bodies of 
those who are obsessed. Be careful therefore that as ye 
drive out devils from the bodies of others, so ye banish all un- 
cleanness and evil from your own bodies lest ye fall beneath 
the power of those spirits who by your ministry are con- 
quered in others. Learn through your office to govern all 
imperfections lest the enemy may claim a share in-you and 
some dominion over you. For truly will ye rightly control 
those devils who attack others, when first ye have overcome 
their many crafts against yourselves. And this may the 
Lord vouchsafe to grant you through His Holy Spirit.’’%° 
After which the Bishop hands to each severally the Book 
of Exorcisms (or Pontifical or Missal), saying: ‘“* Receive 
this and commit it to thy memory and have power to place 
thy hands upon energumens, whether they be baptized, or 
whether they be catechumens.’’8* All kneel, and the Bishop, 
wearing his mitre, stands and prays : 

‘“‘ Dearest brethren, let us humbly pray God the Father 
Almighty that He may vouchsafe to bless these his servants 
to the office of Exorcists that they may have the power to 
command spirits, to cast forth from the bodies of those who 
are obsessed demons with every kind of their wickedness 
and deceit. Through His only begotten Son Jesus Christ 
Our Lord who with Him liveth and reigneth in the unity 
of the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. R. Amen.”’*? 
Then, his mitre having been removed, he turns to the altar 
with ‘“‘ Oremus” to which is given the reply “‘ Flectamus 
genua’”’ with ‘‘ Leuate,” and the last prayer is said over 
the kneeling exorcists: ‘‘ Holy Lord, Almighty Father, 
Eternal God vouchsafe to bless these thy servants to the 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 209 


office of Exorcists ; that by the imposition of our hands and 
the words of our mouth they may have power and authority 
to govern and restrain all unclean spirits: that they may be 
skilful physicians for Thy Church, that they may heal many 
and be themselves strengthened with all Heavenly Grace. 
Through Our Lord Jesus Christ Thy Son who with Thee 
liveth and reigneth in the unity of the Holy Spirit one God 
world without end. R. Amen.” And then, at a sign from 
the Archdeacon, they return to their places.38 

It should be remarked that the Exorcist is specifically 
ordained “‘ to cast out demons,” and he receives “ power to 
place his (your) hands upon the possessed, so that by the 
imposition of his (your) hands,? the grace of the Holy Ghost, 
and the words of exorcism, evil spirits are driven out from 
the bodies of the possessed.” The very striking term 
spirttualis imperator is strictly applied to him, and God 
the Father is earnestly entreated to grant him the grace 
‘to cast out demons from the bodies of the possessed with 
all their many sleights of wickedness.” Nothing could be 
plainer, nothing could be more solemn, nothing could be 
more pregnant with meaning and intention. The Order and 
delegated power of Exorcists cannot be minimized ; at least, 
so to do is clean contrary to the mind of the Church as 
emphatically expressed in her most authoritative rites. In 
actual practice the office of Exorcist has almost wholly been 
taken over by clerics in major orders, but this, of course, in 
no way affects the status and authority of the second of the 
four minor orders. 

Every priest, more especially perhaps if he be a parish 
priest, is liable to be called upon to perform his duty as 
Exorcist. In doing so he must carefully bear in mind and 
adhere to the prescriptions of the Rituale Romanum, and he 
will do well to have due regard to the laws of provincial or 
diocesan synods, which for the most part require that the 
Bishop should be consulted and his authorization obtained 
before exorcism be essayed. 

The chief points of importance in the detailed instructions 
under twenty-one heads prefixed to the rite in the Rituale 
may thus be briefly summarized: (1) The priest or exorcist 
should be of mature age, humble, of blameless life, courageous, 
of experience, and well-attested prudence. It is fitting he 

P 


210 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


should prepare himself for his task by special acts of devotion 
and mortification, by fervent prayer and by fasting (S. Mat- 
thew xvii. 20). (2) He must be a man of scholarship and 
learning, a systematic student and well versed in the latest 
trends and developments of psychological science. (38) Pos- 
session is not lightly to be taken for granted. Each case is 
to be carefully examined and great caution to be used in 
distinguishing genuine possession from certain forms of 
disease. (4) He should admonish the possessed in so far as 
the latter is capable, to dispose himself for the exorcism by 
prayer, fasting, by confession, and Holy Communion, and 
while the rite is in progress he must excite in his heart a most 
lively faith in the goodness of God, and perfect resignation 
to the divine will. (5) The exorcism should take place in the 
Church, or some other sacred place, if convenient, but no 
crowd of gazers must be suffered to assemble out of mere 
curiosity. There should, however, be a number of witnesses, 
grave and devout persons of standing, eminent respectability, 
and acknowledged probity, not prone to idle gossip, but 
discreet and silent. If on account of sickness or for some 
legitimate reason the exorcism takes place in a private house 
it is well that members of the family should be present ; 
especially is this enjoined, as a measure of precaution, if the 
subject be a woman. (6) If the patient seems to fall asleep, 
or endeavours to hinder the exorcist in any way during the 
rite he is to continue, if possible with greater insistence, for 
such actions are probably a ruse to trick him. (7) The 
exorcist, although humble and having no reliance upon 
himself alone, is to speak with command and authority, and 
should the patient be convulsed or tremble, let him be more 
fervent and more insistent; the prayers and adjurations 
are to be recited with great faith, a full and assured con- 
sciousness of power. (8) Let the exorcist remember that he 
uses the words of Holy Scripture and Holy Church, not his 
own words and phrases. (9) All idle and impertinent 
questioning of the demon is to be avoided, nor should the 
evil spirit be allowed to speak at length unchecked and 
unrebuked. (10) The Blessed Sacrament is not to be brought 
near the body of the obsessed during exorcism for fear of 
possible irreverence; Relics of the Saints may be employed, 
but in this case every care must be most scrupulously 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 211 


observed that all due veneration be paid to them; the 
Crucifix and Holy Water are to be used. (11) If expulsion 
of the evil spirit, who will often prove obstinate, is not 
secured at once, the rite should be repeated as often as 
need be. 

It will be seen that the Church has safeguarded exorcism 
with extraordinary precautions, and that everything which 
is humanly possible to prevent superstition, indecorum, or 
abuse is provided for and recommended. Again and again 
the warning is repeated that so solemn, and indeed terrible, 
an office must not lightly be undertaken. The actual form 
in present use is as follows :4° 


THE FORM OF EXORCISING THE POSSESSED 
[TRANSLATED FROM THE ‘“‘ RomANn RiTvat.”’] 


The Priest, having confessed, or at least hating sin in his 
heart, and having said Mass, uf it possibly and conveniently 
can be done, and humbly implored the Divine help, vested in 
surplice and violet stole, the end of which he shall place round 
the neck of the one possessed, and having the possessed person 
before him, and bound if there be danger of violence, shall sign 
himself, the person, and those standing by, with the sign of the 
Cross, and sprinkle them with holy water, and kneeling down, 
the others making the responses, shall say the Litany as far as 
the prayers. 

At the end the Antiphon. Remember not, Lord, our 
offences, nor the offences of our forefathers, neither take 
Thou vengeance of our sins. 


Our Father. Secretly. 


Y And lead us not into temptation. 
ky But deliver us from evil. 


Psalm liii. 
Deus, in Nomine. 
The whole shall be said with Glory be to the Father. 


Y. Save Thy servant, 
ky. O my God, that putteth his trust in Thee. 


VY. Be unto him, O Lord, a strong tower, 
ky. From the face of his enemy. 


212 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


Let the enemy have no advantage of him, 
. Nor the son of wickedness approach to hurt him. 


Send him help, O Lord, from the sanctuary, 
. And strengthen him out of Sion. 

Lord, hear my prayer, 
. And let my cry come unto Thee. 


The Lord be with you, 
. And with thy spirit. 


Let us pray. 


O God, Whose property is ever to have mercy and to 
forgive: receive our supplications and prayers, that of Thy 
mercy and loving-kindness Thou wilt set free this Thy 
servant (or handmaid) who is fast bound by the chain of 
his sins. 

O holy Lord, Father Almighty, Eternal God, the Father 
of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who hast assigned that tyrant 
and apostate to the fires of hell; and hast sent Thine 
Only Begotten Son into the world, that He might bruise 
him as he roars after his prey: make haste, tarry not, 
to deliver this man, created in Thine Own image and 
likeness, from ruin, and from the noon-day devil Send 
Thy fear, O Lord, upon the wild beast, which devoureth 
Thy vine. Grant Thy servants boldness to fight bravely 
against that wicked dragon, lest he despise them that put 
their trust in Thee, and say, as once he spake in Pharaoh : 
I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go. Let Thy 
right hand in power compel him to depart from Thy servant 
N. (or Thy handmaid N.) +h, that he dare no longer to hold 
him captive, whom Thou hast vouchsafed to make in Thine 
image, and hast redeemed in Thy Son; Who liveth and 
reigneth with Thee in the Unity of the Holy Spirit, ever 
One God, world without end. Amen. 


Then he shall command the spirit in this manner. 

I command thee, whosoever thou art, thou unclean spirit, 
and all thy companions possessing this servant of God, that 
by the Mysteries of the Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection 
and Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ, by the sending of 
the Holy Ghost, and by the Coming of the same our Lord 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 213 


to judgment, thou tell me thy name, the day, and the hour 
of thy going out, by some sign: and, that to me, a minister 
of God, although unworthy, thou be wholly obedient in all 
things: nor hurt this creature of God, or those that stand 
by, or their goods in any way. 

Then shall these Gospels, or one or the other, be read over 
the possessed. 

The Lesson of the Holy Gospel according to S. John i. 1. 
As he says these words he shall sign himself and the possessed 
on the forehead, mouth, and breast. In the beginning was the 
Word .. . full of grace and truth. 

The Lesson of the Holy Gospel according to S. Mark 
xvi. 15. At that time: Jesus spake unto His disciples : 
Go ye into all the world . . . shall lay hands on the sick, 
and they shall recover. 

The Lesson of the Holy Gospel according to S. Luke 
x. 17. At that time: The seventy returned again with joy 
. . . because your names are written in heaven. 

The Lesson of the Holy Gospel according to S. Luke 
xi. 14. At that time: Jesus was casting out a devil, and it 
was dumb . . . wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils. 


VY. Lord, hear my prayer, 
ky. And let my cry come unto Thee. 


VY. The Lord be with you, 
ky. And with thy Spirit. 


Let us pray. 

Almighty Lord, Word of God the Father, Jesus Christ, 
God and Lord of every creature: Who didst give to Thy 
Holy Apostles power to tread upon serpents and scorpions : 
Who amongst other of Thy wonderful commands didst 
vouchsafe to say—Put the devils to flight : by Whose power 
Satan fell from heaven like lightning: with supplication 
I beseech Thy Holy Name in fear and trembling, that to me 
Thy most unworthy servant, granting me pardon of all my 
faults, Thou wilt vouchsafe to give constancy of faith and 
power, that shielded by the might of Thy holy arm, in trust 
and safety I may approach to attack this cruel devil, through 
Thee, O Jesus Christ, the Lord our God, Who shalt come to 
judge the quick and the dead, and the world by fire. Amen, 


214 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


Then defending himself and the possessed with the sign of 
the Cross, putting part of his stole round the neck, and his 
right hand upon the head of the possessed, firmly and with great 
faith he shall say what follows. 


VY. Behold the Cross of the Lord, flee ye of the contrary 
part, 

k7. The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, 
hath prevailed. 


VY. Lord, hear my prayer, 
ky. And let my cry come unto Thee. 


VW. The Lord be with you, 
ky. And with thy spirit. 


Let us pray. 

O God, and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, I call upon 
Thy Holy Name, and humbly implore Thy mercy, that Thou 
wouldest vouchsafe to grant me help against this, and every 
unclean spirit, that vexes this Thy creature. Through the 
same Lord Jesus Christ. 


THE EXORCISM. 

I exorcise thee, most foul spirit, every coming in of the 
enemy, every apparition, every legion; in the Name of our 
Lord Jesus > Christ be rooted out, and be put to flight from 
this creature of God 44. He commands thee, Who has bid 
thee be cast down from the highest heaven into the lower 
parts of the earth. He commands thee, Who has commanded 
the sea, the winds, and the storms. Hear therefore, and fear, 
Satan, thou injurer of the faith, thou enemy of the human 
race, thou procurer of death, thou destroyer of life, kindler 
of vices, seducer of men, betrayer of the nations, inciter of 
envy, origin of avarice, cause of discord, stirrer-up of troubles : 
why standest thou, and resistest, when thou knowest that 
Christ the Lord destroyest thy ways? Fear Him, Who was 
sacrificed in Isaac, Who was sold in Joseph, was slain in the 
Lamb, was crucified in man, thence was the triumpher over 
hell. The following signs of the Cross shall be made upon the 
forehead of the possessed. Depart therefore in the Name of 
the Father +f, and of the Son >, and of the Holy +4 Ghost : 
give place to the Holy Ghost, by this sign of the holy > Cross 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 215 


of Jesus Christ our Lord: Who with the Father, and the 
same Holy Ghost, liveth and reigneth ever one God, world 
without end. Amen. 

Lord, hear my prayer. 

And let my ery com? unto Thee. 

The Lord be with you. 

And with thy spirit. 


Let us pray. 

O God, the Creator and Protector of the human race, Who 
hast formed man in Thine own Image: look upon this Thy 
servant N. (or this Thy handmaid N.), who is grievously 
vexed with the wiles of an unclean spirit, whom the old 
adversary, the ancient enemy of the earth, encompasses with 
a horrible dread, and blinds the senses of his human under- 
standing with stupor, confounds him with terror, and harasses 
him with trembling and fear. Drive away, O Lord, the 
power of the devil, take away his deceitful snares: let the 
impious tempter fly far hence: let Thy servant be defended 
by the sign +h (on his forehead) of Thy Name, and be safe both 
in body, and soul. (The three following crosses shall be made 
on the breast of the demoniac.) Do Thou guard his inmost > 
soul, Thou rule his inward +4 parts, Thou strengthen his 44 
heart. Let the attempts of the opposing power in his soul 
vanish away. Grant, O Lord, grace to this invocation of 
Thy most Holy Name, that he who up to this present was 
causing terror, may flee away affrighted, and depart con- 
quered; and that this Thy servant, strengthened in heart, 
and sincere in mind, may render Thee his due service. 
Through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. 


THe Exorcism. 

I adjure thee, thou old serpent, by the Judge of the quick 
and the dead, by thy Maker, and the Maker of the world: 
by Him, Who hath power to put thee into hell, that thou 
depart in haste from this servant of God N., who returns to 
the bosom of the Church, with thy fear and with the torment 
of thy terror. I adjure Thee again > (on his forehead), not 
in my infirmity, but by the power of the Holy Ghost, that 
thou go out of this servant of God N., whom the Almighty 


216 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


God hath made in His Own Image. Yield, therefore, not to 
me, but to the minister of Christ. For His power presses 
upon thee Who subdued thee beneath His Cross. Tremble 
38 His arm, which, after the eroanings of hell were subdued, 
led forth the souls into light. Let the body + (on his breast) 
of man be a terror to thee, let the image of God +k (on his 
forehead) be an alarm to thee. Resist not, nor delay to depart 
from this person, for it has pleased Christ to dwell in man. 
And think not that I am to be despised, since thou knowest 
that I too am so great a sinner. God > commands thee. 
The majesty of Christ }4 commands thee. God the Father + 
commands thee. God the Son 4 commands thee. God the 
Holy 4 Ghost commands thee. The Sacrament of the 
Cross 44 commands thee. The faith of the holy Apostles 
Peter and Paul, and of all the other Saints 44, commands thee. 
The blood of the Martyrs 44 commands thee. The stedfast- 
ness (continentia) of the Confessors 44 commands thee. The 
devout intercession of all the Saints 44 commands thee. The 
virtue of the Mysteries of the Christian Faith 44 commands 
thee. Go out, therefore, thou transgressor. Go out, thou 
seducer, full of all deceit and wile, thou enemy of virtue, thou 
persecutor of innocence. Give place, thou most dire one: 
give place, thou most impious one: give place to Christ in 
Whom thou hast found nothing of thy works: Who hath 
overcome thee, Who hath destroyed thy kingdom, Who hath 
led thee captive and bound thee, and hath spoiled thy goods : 
Who hath cast thee into outer darkness, where for thee and 
thy servants everlasting destruction is prepared. But why, 
O fierce one, dost thou withstand ? why, rashly bold, dost 
thou refuse ? thou art the accused of Almighty God, whose 
laws thou hast broken. Thou art the accused of Jesus Christ 
our Lord, whom thou hast dared to tempt, and presumed to 
crucify. ‘Thou art the accused of the human race, to whom 
by thy persuasion thou hast given to drink thy poison. 
Therefore, I adjure thee, most wicked dragon, in the Name of 
the immaculate > Lamb, Who treads upon the lion and adder, 
Who tramples under foot the young lion and the dragon, that 
thou depart from this man + (let the sign be made upon his 
forehead), that thou depart from the Church of God +h (let the 
sign be made over those who are standing by): tremble, and 
flee away at the calling upon the Name of that Lord, of Whom 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 217 


hell is afraid; to Whom the Virtues, the Powers, and the 
Dominions of the heavens are subject ; Whom Cherubim and 
Seraphim with unwearied voices praise, saying: Holy, Holy, 
Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth. The Word 4 made Flesh 
commands thee. He Who was born +4 of the Virgin com- 
mands thee. Jesus 44 of Nazareth commands thee; Who, 
although thou didst despise His disciples, bade thee go 
bruised and overthrown out of the man: and in his presence, 
having separated thee from him, thou didst not presume to 
enter into the herd of swine. Therefore, thus now adjured 
in His Name 4, depart from the man, whom He has formed. 
It is hard for thee to wish to resist 44. It is hard for thee to 
kick against the pricks 44. Because the more slowly goest 
thou out, does the greater punishment increase against thee, 
for thou-despisest not men, but Him, Who is Lord both of 
the quick and the dead, Who shall come to judge the quick 
and the dead, and the World by fire. Ry. Amen. 


VY. Lord, hear my prayer. 
ky. And let my cry come unto thee. 


VY. The Lord be with you. 
ky. And with thy spirit. 


Let us pray. 

0 God of heaven, God of earth, God of the Angels, God 
of the Archangels, God of the Prophets, God of the Apostles, 
God of the Martyrs, God of the Virgins, God, Who hast the 
power to give life after death, rest after labour; because 
there is none other God beside Thee, nor could be true, but 
Thou, the Creator of heaven and earth, Who art the true 
King, and of Whose kingdom there shall be no end: humbly 
I beseech Thy glorious majesty, that Thou wouldest vouch- 
safe to deliver this Thy servant from unclean spirits, through 
Christ our Lord. Amen. 


THE Exorcism. 

I therefore adjure thee, thou most foul spirit, every 
appearance, every inroad of Satan, in the Name of Jesus 
Christ 44 of Nazareth, Who, after His baptism in Jordan, 
was led into the wilderness, and overcame thee in thine own 
stronghold: that thou cease to assault him whom He hath 


218 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


formed from the dust of the earth for His own honour and 
glory : and that thou in miserable man tremble not at human 
weakness, but at the image of Almighty God. Yield, there- 
fore, to God 44 Who by His servant Moses drowned thee and 
thy malice in Pharaoh and his army in the depths of the sea. 
Yield to God +4, Who put thee to flight when driven out of 
King Saul with spiritual song, by his most faithful servant 
David. Yield thyself to God 44, Who condemned thee in the 
traitor Judas Iscariot. For He touches thee with Divine 4 
stripes, when in His sight, trembling and crying out with 
thy legions, thou saidst: What have I to do with Thee, 
Jesus, Son of the Most High God ? Art Thou come hither to 
torment us before the time? He presses upon thee with 
perpetual flames, Who shall say to the wicked at the end of 
time—Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, 
prepared for the devil and his angels. For thee, O impious 
one, and for thy angels, is the worm that dieth not; for thee 
and thy angels is the fire unquenchable prepared: for thou 
art the chief of accursed murder, thou the author of incest, 
thou the head of sacrileges, thou the master of the worst 
actions, thou the teacher of heretics, thou the instigator of all 
uncleanness. Therefore go out +h, thou wicked one, go out Hy, 
thou infamous one, go out with all thy deceits ; for God hath 
willed that man shall be His temple. But why dost thou 
delay longer here? Give honour to God the Father 4 
Almighty, before Whom every knee is bent. Give place to 
Jesus Christ 4 the Lord, Who shed for man His most precious 
Blood. Give place to the Holy 44 Ghost, Who by His blessed 
Apostle Peter struck thee to the ground in Simon Magus ; 
Who condemned thy deceit in Ananias and Sapphira; Who 
smote thee in Herod, because he gave not God the glory ; 
Who by his Apostle Paul smote thee in Elymas the sorcerer 
with a mist and darkness, and by the same Apostle by his 
word of command bade thee come out of the damsel possessed 
with the spirit of divination. Now therefore depart >, 
depart, thou seducer. The wilderness is thy abode. The 
serpent is the place of thy habitation: be humbled, and be 
overthrown. There is no time now for delay. For behold 
the Lord the Ruler approaches closely upon thee, and His 
fire shall glow before Him, and shall go before Him; and 
shall burn up His enemies on every side, If thou hast deceived 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 219 


man, at God thou canst not scoff: One expels thee, from Whose 
Sight nothing is hidden. He casts thee out, to Whose power 
all things are subject. He shuts thee out, Who hast prepared 
for thee and for thine angels everlasting hell ; out of Whose 
mouth the sharp sword shall go out, when He shall come to 
judge the quick and the dead, and the World by fire. Amen. 


All the aforesaid things being said and done, so far as there 
shall be need, they shall be repeated, until the possessed person 
be entirely set free. 


The following which are noted down will be of great assistance, 
said devoutly over the possessed, and also frequently to repeat 
the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Creed. 


The Canticle. Magnificat. 
The Canticle. Benedictus. 
The Creed of S. Athanasius. 
Quicunque uult. 


Psalm xe. Qui habitat. 

Psalm Ixvii. Haurgat Deus. 

Psalm Ixix. Deus in adiutorium. 
Psalm lil. Deus, In Nomine Tuo. 
Psalm exvil. Confitemini Domino. 
Psalm xxxiv. JIudica, Domine. 

Psalm xxx. In Te, Domine, speraut. 
Psalm xxi. Deus, Deus meus. 

Psalm iii. Domine, quid multiplicasti ? 
Psalm x. In Domino confido. 

Psalm xii. Usquequo, Domine ? 

Each Psalm shall be said with Glory be to the Father, &c. 


Prayer after being set free. 

We pray Thee, O Almighty God, that the spirit of wicked- 
ness may have no more power over this Thy servant N. 
(or Thy handmaid N.), but that he may flee away, and never 
come back again: at Thy bidding, O Lord, let there come 
into him (or her) the goodness and peace of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, by Whom we have been redeemed, and let us fear 
no evil, for the Lord is with us, Who liveth and reigneth 
with Thee, in the Unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, 
world without end. ky. Amen. 


/ 


220 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


A shorter form of exorcism, which, being general, differs 
in aim and use, was published by order of Pope Leo XIII 
and may be found in the later editions of the Rituale 
Romanum, “‘ Exorcismus in Satanam et Angelos aposta- 
licos.”"44, After the customary invocation In nominee... 
the rite begins with a prayer to S. Michael, the solemn 
adjuration of some length follows with versicles and responses, 
a second prayer is next recited, and the whole concludes by 
three aspirations from the Litany: ‘‘ From the deceits and 
crafts of the Devil; O Lord, deliver us. That it may please 
Thee to rule Thy Church so it shall alway serve Thee in last- 
ing peace and true liberty ; We beseech Thee, hear us. That 
Thou wouldst vouchsafe to beat down and subdue all the 
enemies of Thy Holy Church; We beseech Thee, hear us.”’ 
And the place is sprinkled with Holy Water,*? is the final 
rubric. 

The Baptismal Exorcism and exorcisms such as those of 
water, salt,*? and oil, it were perhaps impertinent to treat 
of here. It may, however, be noticed that in the ceremony 
of the Blessing of the Waters*4 (approved by the Sacred 
Congregation of Rites, 6 December, 1890), performed on the 
Vigil of the Epiphany, there occurs a solemn ‘‘ Exorcismus 
contra Satanam et Angelos apostalicos,”’ followed by ‘‘ Exor- 
cismus Salis’? and “‘ Exorcismus aque.”’ 

There are recorded throughout history innumerable 
examples of obsession and demoniacal possession, as also of 
potent and successful exorcism. It is, of course, quite possible, 
and indeed probable, that many of these cases were due to 
natural causes, epilepsy, acute hysteria, incipient lunacy, 
and the like. But, none the less, when every allowance has 
been made for incorrect diagnosis, for ill-informed ascriptions 
of rare and obscure forms of both physical and mental 
maladies, for credulity, honest mistakes, and exaggerations of 
every kind, there will yet remain a very considerable quota 
which it seems impossible to account for and explain save 
on the score of possession by some evil and hostile intelligence. 
But nobody is asked to accept all the instances of diabolic 
possession recorded in the history of the Church, nor even 
to form any definite opinion upon the historical evidence in 
favour of any particular case. That is primarily a matter 
for historical and medical science. And, perhaps, even at 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 221 


the present day and among civilized races this phenomenon 
is not so rare as is popularly supposed. 

The annals of Bedlam, of many a private madhouse, and 
many an asylum could tell strange and hideous histories. 
And if we may judge from the accounts furnished by the 
pioneers of the Faith in missionary countries the evidences 
of diabolical agency there are as clearly defined and un- 
mistakable as they were in Galilee in the time of Christ.45 

Demoniacal possession is frequently described and alluded 
to by the early fathers and apologists in matter-of-fact terms 
which leave no shadow of doubt as to their belief in this 
regard. Indeed the success of Christian exorcism is often 
brought forward as an argument for the acceptance of the 
Divinity of the founder of Christianity. It would be an easy, 
but a very lengthy process, to make a catena of such passages 
from Greek and Latin authors alike.4® §S. Justin Martyr 
(0b. circa A.D. 165) speaks of demons flying from ‘‘ the touch 
and breathing of Christians ”’ (Apologia, II, 6), ‘as from a 
flame that burns them,” adds S. Cyril of Jerusalem (ob. 
385-6: Catechesis, XX, 8). Origen (ob. 253-4) mentions the 
laying on of hands to cast out devils, whilst S. Ambrose? 
(0b. 897), S. Ephrem Syrus48 (ob. 373), and others used this 
ceremony when exorcizing. The holy sign of the Cross also 

is extolled by many Fathers for its efficacy against all kinds 
_ of diabolic molestation; thus Lactantius writes: ‘‘ Nunc 
satis est, huius signi [Crucis] potentiam, quantum ualeat 
exponere. Quanto terrori sit demonibus hoc signum, sciet, 
qui uiderit, quatenus adiurati per Christum, de corporibus, 
que obsederint, fugiant,”4® Diwinarwm Institutionum, IV, 
xxvil.°? §. Athanasius (0b. 873), De Incarnatione Uerbi, 
XLVII; S. Basil (0b. 379), In Esaiam, XI, 249; S. Cyril of 
Jerusalem, Catechesis, XIII; S. Gregory of Nazianzus (ob. 
circa 389), Carmen aduersus Iram, 415 sqq., all have passages 
of no little weight to the same effect. S. Cyril, Procatechesis, 
IX; and S. Athanasius, Ad Marcellum, XXIII, recom- 
mend that the prayers of exorcism and the adjuration 
should as far as possible repeat the exact words of Holy 
Scripture. 7 

In the annals of hagiography we find from the earliest days 
until our own time very many instances of possession, very 
many cases where a poor afflicted wretch has been released 


222 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


and relieved by the power and prayer of some Saint or holy 
servant of God.*! 

Thus in the life of S. Benedict, that noble, calm, dignified, 
prudent, great-souled, and high-minded hero, there are 
recorded several occasions upon which he was confronted 
by extraordinary manifestations of evil spirits who resisted 
the building of his monastery upon the crest of Monte 
Cassino, where Satanism had been previously practised. It 
is not said that there were any visible appearances, save to 
S. Benedict alone,®? but a succession of untoward accidents, 
of abnormal occurrences and constant alarms, plainly showed 
that the Saint was contending against superhuman difficulties. 
More than once he found it necessary to exorcize certain of 
his monks,** and so marked was his triumph over these 
malignant and destructive influences that he has always 
been venerated in the Church as a most potent “ effugator 
demonum,”’ and is confidently invoked in the hour of 
spiritual peril and deadly attack. Great faith also is placed 
in the Medal of Saint Benedict. This medal, originally a 
cross, is dedicated to the devotion in honour of the Patriarch. 
One side bears the figure of the Saint holding a cross in his 
right hand, and the Holy Rule in his left. Upon the other 
is a cross together with the following letters arranged on and 
around it: C.S.P.B., Crux Sancti Patris Benedicti (The Cross 
of the holy Father Benedict). C.S.S.M.L., Crux Sacra Sit 
Mihi Lux (May the holy Cross be my Light). N.D.S.M.D., 
Non Draco Sit Mihi Dux (Let not the Devil be my guide). 
U.R.S.: N.S.M.U.: S.M.Q.L.: I.U.B.: Uade Retro Satana : 
Nunquam Suade Mihi Uana: Sunt Mala Que Libas: Ipse 
Uenena Bibas. (Begone, Satan, never suggest things to me, 
what thou offerest is evil, drink thou thyself thy poison).®4 
The “Centenary ’’ form of the medal (struck at Monte 
Cassino in 1880 to commemorate the 18th centenary of 
the birth of S. Benedict in 480) has under the figure the 
words: He S.M. Cassino MDCCCLXXX. Upon the same 
side round the edge runs the inscription: Eius in obitu nro 
presentia muniamur (May we be protected by his presence 
at the hour of our death), and the word PAX appears above 
the cross. 

It is doubtful when the Medal of S. Benedict originated, 
but during a trial for Witchcraft at Natternberg, near the 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 223 


abbey of Metten, in Bavaria, during the year 1647, the 
accused women testified that they had no power over Metten 
which was under the particular protection of the cross. 
Upon investigation a number of painted crosses surrounded 
by the letters which are now engraved upon Benedictine 
medals were found on the walls of the abbey, but their 
signification had been wholly forgotten. At length, in an 
old manuscript, written in 1415, was discovered a picture 
representing S. Benedict holding in one hand a staff which 
ended in a cross, and in the other a scroll. On the staff and 
scroll were written in full the formulas of which the mysterious 
letters were the initials. Medals with the figure of S. Benedict, 
a cross, and these letters began now to be struck and rapidly 
spread over Europe. The medals were first authoritatively 
approved by Benedict XIV in his briefs of 23 December, 1741, 
and 12 March, 1742. 

In the case of the possessed boys of Illfurt (Alsace) they 
exhibited the utmost horror and dread of a Medal of 
S. Benedict. 

These medals are hallowed with a proper rite®> in which 
the adjuration commences: ‘ Exorcizo uos, numismata, per 
Deum Patrem + omnipotentem....” “TI exorcize ye, 
medals, through God the Father 4 Almighty. . . . May the 
power of the adversary, all the host of the Devil, all evil 
attack, every spirit and glamour of Satan, be utterly put to 
flight and driven far away by the virtue of these medals. 
Hevea) Lhe prayer runs:; “'O-Lord Jesus Christ .°... by 
Thy most Holy Passion I humbly pray and beseech Thee, 
that Thou wouldest grant that whosoever devoutly invoketh 
Thy Holy Name in this prayer and petition which Thou 
Thyself hast taught us, may be delivered from every deceit 
of the Devil and from all his wiles, and that Thou wouldest 
vouchsafe to bring Thy servant to the harbour of salvation. 
Who livest and reignest. . . .”?5? 

S. Maurus also, the beloved disciple of S. Benedict, was 
famous for the cures he wrought in cases of possession.58 
Visiting France in 548 he became founder and superior of 
the abbey of Glanfeuil, Anjou, later known by his name, 
St. Maur-sur-Loise.®® The relics of S. Maurus after various 
translations were finally enshrined at St. Germain-des-Prez, 
In the eleventh century an arm of the Saint had been with 


224 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


great devotion transferred to Monte Cassino, where by its 
touch a demoniac was delivered. This is related by Desi- 
derius,®° who was abbot at that time, and afterwards became 
Pope, Blessed Victor III (ob. 16 September, 1087). Through- 
out the Middle Ages the tomb of S. Maur at St. Germain 
was a celebrated place of pilgrimage, and the possessed were 
brought here in large numbers to be healed. *® 

The Holy Winding Sheet of Besancon, again, was greatly 
resorted to for the relief and cure of possession. This 
venerable relic, being one of the linen cloths used at the 
burial of Christ, was brought to Besan¢on in 1206 by Otto 
de la Roche, and the feast of its arrival (Susceptio) was 
ordered to be kept on 11 July. At present it is a double of 
the first class in the cathedral, St. Jean, and of the second 
class throughout the diocese. . 

Novenas made in the church at Bonnet, near Nantes, were 
popularly supposed to be of especial efficacy in healing 
possession. 

It is, of course, impossible even briefly to catalogue the 
most important and striking of the numberless cases of 
possession recorded throughout the centuries in every country 
and at every era. Of these a great number are, no doubt, 
to be attributed to disease ; very many to a commixture of 
hysteria and semi-conscious, or more frequently unconscious, 
fraud ; some few to mere chousing; and, if human evidence 
is worth anything at all, many actually to diabolic influence. 

There were some curious episodes in England during Queen 
Elizabeth’s reign, when a third-rate Puritan minister, John 
Darrel, made a considerable stir owing to his attempts 
at exorcism. This idea seems to have been suggested 
to him by the exorcisms of the famous Jesuit missionary 
priest, William Weston, who after having been educated at 
Oxford, Paris, and Douai, entered the Society on 5 November, 
1575, at Rome. He then worked and taught in Spain, until 
he was called to his native mission, actually arriving in 
England, 20 September, 1584. In the course of his labours, 
which at that dangerous time were carried on in circum- 
stances of extremest peril, he was required to perform the 
rite of exorcism upon several distressed persons, who were 
for the most part brought to him at the houses of two zealous 
Catholics, Sir George Peckham of Denham, near Uxbridge, 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 225 


and Lord Vaux of Hackney, both of which gentlemen had 
suffered in many ways for their faith. With regard to the 
patients we can only say that we lack evidence to enable us 
to decide whether the cases were genuine, or whether they 
were merely sick and ailing folk; but we can confidently 
affirm that there is no suspicion of any fraud or cozenage. 
Father Weston is acknowledged to have been a man of the 
most candid sincerity, intensely spiritual, and of no ordinary 
powers. Although the rites, in which several priests joined, 
were performed with the utmost secrecy and every precaution 
was taken to prevent any report being spread abroad, some- 
body gossiped, and in about a year various exaggerated 
accounts were being circulated, until the matter came beforé 
the Privy Council. A violent recrudescence of persecution 
at once followed, many of the exorcists were seized and 
butchered for their priesthood, the rest, including Weston, 
were flung into jail, August, 1586. A long period of imprison- 
ment ensued, and in 1599 Weston was committed to the 
Tower, where he suffered such hardships that he wellnigh 
lost his sight. Eventually in 1608 he was banished, and 
spent the rest of his days at Seville and Valladolid. He was 
rector of the latter college at the time of his death, 9 June, 
Has Pla 

It was in 1586, just when the exorcisms of the Jesuit 
fathers had unfortunately attracted so widespread attention 
and foolish comment, that John Darrel, although a Pro- 
testant and lacking both appropriate ordination and training, 
rashly resolved to emulate their achievements. He was 
young, not much more than twenty, he was foolhardy and 
he was ignorant, three qualities which even in our own time 
often win cheap notoriety. It seems that he was first called 
in to cure a young girl of seventeen, Katherine Wright, who 
lived at Mansfield, Nottingham. Darrel forthwith pronounced 
that she was afflicted by an evil spirit, and he prayed over 
her from four o’clock in the morning till noon, but entirely - 
without result. He then declared that the wench had been 
bewitched and that the demon, moreover, was sent by one 
Margaret Roper, with whom the patient had recently quar- 
relled. The girl backed his story, and the accused woman 
was at once taken into custody by the constable. When, 
however, she appeared before Mr. Fouliamb, a justice of the 


Q 


226 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


peace, not only was she incontinently discharged, but Darrel 
received a smart rebuff and found himself in no small danger 
of arrest. 

This mischance sufficiently scared the would-be exorcist, 
and for some ten years he disappeared from view, only to 
come before the public again at Burton-upon-Trent, where 
he was prominent in the sensation and the scandal that , 
centred round Thomas Darling, a young Derbyshire boy. 
This imaginative juvenal was subject to fits—real or feigned 
—during which he had visions of green angels and a green 
eat. Betimes his conversation became larded with true 
Puritan cant, and he loved to discourse with godly ministers. 
A credulous physician suggested that the lad was bewitched, 
and very soon afterwards it was noticed that the reading 
aloud of the Bible, especially certain verses in the first chapter 
of S. John’s Gospel, threw him into frantic convulsions. He 
also began a long prattling tale about “a little old woman ”’ 
who wore ‘‘a broad thrimmed hat,’”’ which proved amply 
sufficient to cause two women, Elizabeth Wright, and her 
daughter, Alse Gooderidge, long vehemently suspected of 
sorcery, to be examined before two magistrates, who com- 
mitted Alse to jail. Next those concerned summoned a 
cunning man, who used various rough methods to induce the 
prisoner to confess. After having been harried and even 
tortured the wretched creature made some rambling and 
incoherent acknowledgements of guilt, which were twisted 
into a connected story. By now Darling had been ill for 
three months, and so far from improving, was getting 
worse. 

At this juncture, exactly the dramatic moment, John Darrel, 
full of bluff and bounce, appeared upon the scene, and forth- 
with took charge of affairs. According to his own account 
his efforts were singularly blessed ; that is to say the boy got 
better and the sly Puritan claimed all the credit. Alse 
Gooderidge was tried at the assizes, convicted by the 
jury, and sentenced to death by Lord Chief Justice 
Anderson; ‘‘She should have been executed but that 
her spirit killed her in prison,” says John Denison the 
pamphleteer! The whole affair greatly increased Darrel’s 
reputation. 

Not long after a much-bruited case of alleged possession 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 227 


in Lancashire gave him further opportunity to pose in the 
limelight. Ann Starchie, aged nine, and J ohn, her brother, 
aged ten, were seized with a mysterious disorder; “a 
certaine fearefull starting and pulling together of her body ” 
affected the girl, whilst the boy was “‘compelled to shout # 
on his way to school. Both grew steadily worse until their 
father, Nicholas Starchie, consulted Edmund Hartley, a 
notorious conjurer of no very fair repute. Hartley seems to 
have quieted the children by means of various charms, and 
the father paid him something like a retaining fee of forty 
shillings a year. This, however, he insisted should be in- 
creased, and when any addition was denied, there were 
quarrels, and presently the boy and girl again fell ill. The 
famous Dr. Dee was summoned, but he was obviously non- 
plussed, and whilst he ‘sharply reproved and _straitly 
examined ” Hartley, in his quandary could do or say little 
more save advise the help of ‘‘ godlie preachers.’ The 
situation in that accursed house now began to grow more 
serious. Besides the children three young wards of Mr. 
Starchie, a servant, and a visitor, were all seized with the 
strange disease. ‘‘ All or most of them joined together in 
a strange and supernatural loud whupping that the house 
and grounde did sounde therwith again.’”’ Hartley fell under 
suspicion, and was haled before a justice of the peace, who 
promptly committed him to the assizes. Evidence was given 
that he was continually kissing the Starchie children, in fact, 
he kept embracing all the possessed, and it was argued that 
he had thus communicated an evil spirit to them. He was 
accused of having drawn magic circles upon the ground, and 
although he stoutly denied the charge, he was convicted of 
felony and hanged at Lancaster. John Darrel and _ his 
assistant, George More, minister of a church in Derbyshire, 
undertook to exorcize the afflicted, and in a day or two, after 
long prayers and great endeavours, they managed to expel 
the devils. Here we have folly, imposture, and hysteria all 
blended together to make a horrible tale. 

At this time Darrel was officiating as a minister at Notting- 
ham, where there happened to be living a young apprenticed 
musician, a clever and likely lad, William Somers, who some 
years before had met Darrel at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, where 
both had been resident. It appears that the boy had once 


228 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


met a strange woman, whom he offended in some way, and 
suddenly he “ did use such strang and idle kinde of gestures 
in laughing, dancing, and such like lighte behaviour, that he 
was suspected to be madd.”? The famous exorcist was sent for 
on the 5th of November, 1597, and forthwith recognized the 
signs of possession. The lad was suffering for the sins of 
Nottingham. Accordingly sermons were delivered and 
prayers were read in true ranting fashion, and when Darrel 
named one after the other fourteen signs of possession the 
patient, who had been most carefully coached, illustrated 
each in turn. 

It is possible that Darrel had to some extent mesmeric 
control over Somers, whose performance was of a very 
remarkable nature at least, for ‘‘he tore; he foamed; he 
wallowed ; his face was drawn awry; his eyes would stare 
and his tongue hang out”’; together with a thousand other 
such apish antics which greatly impressed the bystanders. 
Finally the boy lay as if dead for a quarter of an hour, and 
then rose up declaring he was well and whole. 

However, obsession followed possession. The demon still 
assailed him, and it was not long before Master Somers 
accused thirteen women of having contrived his maladies by 
their sorcery. Darrel, the witch-finder, had by this time 
attained a position of no small importance in the town, being 
chosen preacher at S. Mary’s, and he was prepared to back 
his pupil to the uttermost. Yet even his influence for some 
reason did not serve, and all but two of the women concerned 
were released from prison. Next certain unbelieving citizens 
had the bad taste to interfere, and to carry off the chief actor 
to the house of correction, where he pretty soon confessed 
his impostures, in which, as he acknowledged, he had been 
carefully instructed by Darrel. The matter now became a 
public scandal, and upon the report of the Archdeacon of 
Derby the Archbishop of York appointed a commission to 
inquire into the facts. Brought before these ministers, not 
one of whom could possibly have had any means of forming 
a correct Judgement, Somers retracted his words, asserted 
that he had been induced to slander Darrel, and thereat 
fell into such fits, foamings, and contortions that the 
ignoramuses were convinced of the reality of his demoniac 
possession. 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 229 


At the Nottingham assizes, however, things went differ- 
ently. Summoned to court and encouraged by the Lord 
Chief Justice, Sir Edmund Anderson, ® to tell the truth the 
wretched young man made a clean breast of all his tricks. 
The case against Alice Freeman, the accused, was dismissed, 
and Sir Edmund, shocked at the frauds, wrote a weighty 
letter to Whitgift, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Darrel 
and More were cited to the Court of High Commission, where 
Bancroft, Bishop of London, two of the Lord Chief Justices, 
the Master of Requests, and other high officials heard the 
case. It is obvious that Bancroft really controlled the 
examination from first to last, and that he combined the 
roles of prosecutor and judge. Somers now told the Court 
how he had been in constant communication with Darrel, 
how they had met secretly when Darrel taught him “ to doe 
all those trickes which Katherine Wright did” and later 
sent him to see and learn of the boy of Burton. In fact 
Darrel made him go through a whole series of antics again 
and again in his presence, and it was after all these pre- 
liminaries and practice that the lad posed as a possessed 
person at Nottingham and was prayed over and exhibited. 
The vulpine Puritan was fairly caught. No doubt the Bishop 
of London may have been a trifle arbitrary, but after all 
he was dealing with a rank impostor. Darrel and More 
were deposed from the ministry, and committed to close 
prison. 

The whole of this case is reported by Samuel Harsnett, 
chaplain to Bancroft, in a book of three hundred and twenty- 
four pages, A Discovery of the Fraudulent Practises of John 
Darrel, Bacheler of Artes. . . . London, 1599, and a perfect 
rain of pamphlets followed. Both Darrel and More answered 
Harsnett, drawing meantime a number of other persons into 
the paper fray. We have such works as An Apologie, or 
defence of the possession of William Sommers, a young man | 
of the towne of Nottingham. .. . By John Darrell, Minister 
of Christ Jesus . . . a black letter brochure which is undated 
but may be safely assigned to 1599; The Triall of Maist. 
Dorrel, or A Collection of Defences against Allegations .. . 
1599 ;®* and Darrel’s abusive A Detection of that sinnful, 
shamful, lying, and ridiculous discours of Samuel Harshnet, 
1600. There are several allusions in contemporary dramatists 


230 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


to the scandal, and Jonson in The Divell is an Asse, acted in 
1616; V, 8, has: 

It is the easiest thing, Sir, to be done. 

As plaine as fizzling : roule but wi’ your eyes, 

And foame at th’ mouth. A little castle-soape 

Will do’t, to rub your lips: And then a nutshell, 

With toe and touchwood in it to spit fire, 

Did you ner’e read, Sir, little Darrel’s tricks, 

With the boy o’ Burton, and the 7 in Lancashire, 

Sommers at Nottingham? All these do teach it. 

And wee’! give out, Sir, that your wife ha’s bewitch’d you. 

It is probable that in his books Harsnett is to a large 

extent the mouthpiece of the ideas of Bancroft,®> whose 
opinions must have carried no small weight seeing that in 
1604 he became Archbishop of Canterbury. But Harsnett 
himself was also a man who could well stand alone, a divine 
marked out for the highest preferments. As Master of 
Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, Vice-chancellor of that Uni- 
versity, Bishop of Chichester, Bishop of Norwich, and finally 
in 1628 Archbishop of York,®® he was certainly one of the 
most prominent men of the day. His views, therefore, are 
not only of interest, but may be regarded as an expression 
of recognized Anglican authority. Bancroft, who was a 
bitter persecutor of Catholics, seems to have turned over a 
quantity of material he had collected to Harsnett, who in 
1608 published a verjuiced attack upon the priesthood in 
particular and upon the supernatural in general under the 
title of A Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures.®” This 
violent and foolish polemic with its heavy periods of coarse 
ill-humour and scornful profanity jars upon the reader like 
the harsh screeching of some cankered scold. True, it has 
a certain force due to the very vehemence and elaborate 
gusto of the wrathful ecclesiastic, the force of Billingsgate 
and deafening vituperation bawled by leathern lungs and 
raucous tongue. As a sober argument, a reasoned contribu- 
tion to controversy and debate, the thing is negligible and 
has been wholly forgotten. Nevertheless, historically Harsnett 
and Bancroft are important, for it was the latter who drew 
up, or at least inspired, carried through Convocation, and 
at once enforced the Canons generally known as those of 
1604, of which number 72 lays down: ‘‘ No minister or 
ministers shall . . . without the license or direction (manda- 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 231 


tum) of the Bishop . . . attempt upon any pretence what- 
soever either of possession or obsession, by fasting or prayer, 
to cast out any devil or devils, under pain of the imputation 
of imposture or cozenage, and deposition from the ministry.” 

This article seems definitely intended to fix the position 
of the Church of England.*® The whole question of exorcism 
had, in common with every other point of Christian doctrine, 
caused the most acrid disagreement. The Lutherans retained 
exorcism in the baptismal rite and were both instant and 
persevering in their exorcisms of the possessed. Martin 
Luther himself had a most vivid realization of and the firmest 
belief in the material antagonism of evil. The black stain 
in the castle of Wartburg still marks the room where he 
flung his ink-horn at the Devil. The silly body, the blind, 
the dumb, the idiot, were, as often as not, afflicted by demons ; 
the raving maniac was assuredly possessed. Physicians might 
explain these evils as natural infirmity, but such physicians 
were ignorant men; they did not know the craft and power 
of Satan. Many a poor wretch who was generally supposed 
to have committed suicide had in truth been seized by the 
Fiend and strangled by him. The Devil could beget children ; 
had not Luther himself come in contact with one of them ?°° 
At the close of the sixteenth century, however, an intermin- 
able and desperate struggle took place between the believers 
in exorcism and the Swiss and Silesian sectaries who entirely 
discarded exorcism, 7° either declaring it to have belonged only 
to the earliest years of Christianity or else trying to explain 
away the Biblical instances on purely rationalistic grounds. 
In England baptismal exorcism was retained in the First 
Prayer Book of 1549, but by 1552, owing to the authority 
of Martin Bucer, we find it entirely eliminated. Under 
Elizabeth the ever-increasing influence of Zurich and Geneva, 
to which completest deference was paid, thoroughly dis- 
credited exorcisms of any kind, and this misbelieving attitude 
is repeatedly and amply made clear in the sundry “ Apolo- 
gies’ and ‘‘ Defences ’’ of Jewel and his followers. 

A letter of Archbishop Parker in 15747! with reference to 
the proven frauds of two idle wenches, Agnes Bridges and 
Rachel Pinder,”? shows that he was thoroughly sceptical as 
to the possibility of possession, and his successor, the stout 
old Calvinist Whitgift, was certainly of the same mind. 


232 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


In 1603 five clergymen attempted exorcism in the case of 
Mary Glover, the daughter of a merchant in Thames Street, 
who was said to be possessed owing to the sorceries of a 
certain Elizabeth Jackson. John Swan, ‘‘ a famous Minister 
of the Gospel,” took the lead in this business, which made 
considerable noise at the time. The Puritans were not 
unnaturally anxious to vindicate their powers over the Devil 
and they seem avidly to have grasped at any such opportunity 
that offered. Swan did not fail to advertise his supposed 
triumph in A True and Breife Report of Mary Glover’s Vexation 
and of her delwerance by the meanes of fastinge and prayer, 
1603; moreover, after her deliverance he took her home to 
be his servant “least Satan should assault her again.” 
Old Mother Jackson was indicted, committed by Sir John 
Crook, the Recorder of London, and actually sentenced by 
Sir Edmund Anderson, the Lord Chief Justice, to be pilloried 
four times and be kept a year in prison. Unfortunately for 
the would-be exorcists and their pretensions King James, 
whose shrewd suspicions were aroused, sent to examine the 
girl, a physician, Dr. Edward Jorden, who detected her 
imposture, in which, I doubt not, she had been well coached 
by the Puritans. Dr. Jorden recounted the circumstance in 
his pamphlet A briefe discourse of a disease called the Suffocation 
of the Mother, Written uppon occasion which hath beene of late 
taken thereby to suspect possession of an evill spirit (London, 
1603). ‘The ministers were extremely chagrined, and one 
Stephen Bradwell even took up the cudgels in a tart 
rejoinder to Jorden, which was singularly futile as his 
lucubrations remain unpublished.?3 It is not improbable 
that this performance had its share of influence on Bancroft 
when he drew up article 72 of the 1604 Canons. 

Francis Hutchinson in his Historical Essay on Witchcraft 
(1718)?4 doubts whether any Bishop of the Church of England 
ever granted a licence for exorcism to any one of his clergy, 
and indeed the case which is given by Dr. F. G. Lee,7® who 
relates how Bishop Seth Ward of Exeter assigned a form 
under his own signature and seal in January, 1665, to the 
Rev. John Ruddle, vicar of Altarnon, is probably unique. 
And even so, this was not strictly speaking an instance of ex- 
orcism, at least there was no deliverance of a person possessed. 


Mr. Ruddle records in his MS. Diary that in a lonely field 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 233 


belonging to the parish of Little Petherick? an apparition 
was seen by a lad aged about sixteen, the son of a certain 
Mr. Bligh. The ghost, which was that of one Dorothy 
Durant, who had died eight years before, appeared so 
frequently to the boy at this same spot which he was obliged 
to pass daily as he went to and from school, that he fell ill 
and at last confessed his fears to his family, who treated the 
matter with ridicule and scolded him roundly when they 
saw that jest and mockery were of no avail. Eventually 
Mr. Ruddle was sent for to argue him out of his foolishness. 
The vicar, however, was not slow to perceive that young 
Bligh was speaking the truth, and he forthwith accompanied 
his pupil to the field, where they both unmistakably saw the 
phantom just as had been described. After a little while 
Mr. Ruddle visited Exeter to interview his diocesan and 
obtain the necessary licence for the exorcism. The Bishop, 
however, asked: “On what authority do you allege that 
I am entrusted with faculty so to do? Our Church, as is 
well known, hath abjured certain branches of her ancient 
power, on grounds of perversion and abuse.’ Mr. Ruddle 
quoted the Canons of 1604, and this appears to have satisfied 
the prelate, who called in his secretary and assigned a form 
“insomuch that the matter was incontinently done.” But 
the worthy vicar was not permitted to depart without a 
thoroughly characteristic caution: ‘‘ Let it be secret, Mr. 
Ruddle,—weak brethren! weak brethren!’ The MS. Diary 
gives some details of the manner in which the ghost was laid, 
and it is significant to read that the operator described a 
circle and a pentacle upon the ground further making use 
of a rowan “crutch” or wand. He mentions “‘ a parchment 
scroll,”’ he spoke in Syriac and proceeded to demand as the 
books advise; he “went through the proper forms of 
dismissal and fulfilled all, as it was set down and written in 
my memoranda,” and then “ with certain fixed rites I did 
dismiss that troubled ghost.’ It would be interesting to 
know what form and ceremonies the Bishop prescribed. It 
does not sound like the details of a Catholic exorcism, but 
rather some superstitious and magical ritual. From what is 
related the form can hardly have been arranged for the 
nonce. . 

Although exorcism was not recognized by Protestants 


‘ 


234 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


there are instances upon record where an appeal has been 
made by English country-folk for the ministrations of a 
Catholic priest. In April, 1815, Father Edward Peach of the 
Midland District, was implored to visit a young married 
woman named White, of King’s Norton, Worcestershire. 
She had for two months been afflicted with an extraordinary 
kind of illness which doctors could neither name nor cure. 
Her sister declared that a young man of bad repute, whose 
hand had been rejected, had sworn revenge and had employed 
the assistance of a reputed wizard at Dudley to work some 
mischief. However that might be, the unhappy girl seemed 
to lie at death’s door ; she raved of being beset day and night 
by spirits who mocked and moped at her, threatening to 
carry her away body and soul, and suggesting self-destruction 
as the only means to escape them. The clergyman of the 
parish visited and prayed with her, but no good resulted 
from all his endeavours. It so happened that a nurse who 
was called in was a Catholic, and horrified at the hideous 
ravings of the patient she procured a bottle of holy water, 
with which she sprinkled the room and bed. A few drops 
fell upon the sufferer, who uttered the most piercing cries, 
and screamed out, ‘‘ You have scalded me! You have 
scalded me!” The paroxysm, however, passed, and she fell 
for the first time during many weeks into a sound slumber. 
After some slight improvement for eight and forty hours 
she was attacked by violent convulsions, and her relatives, 
in great alarm, on Tuesday in Rogation Week, 2 May, 1815, 
sent a special messenger to beg Father Peach to come over 
immediately. 

When the priest appeared the girl was being held down in 
bed by two women who were forced to put forth all their 
strength, and as soon as she saw him—he was a complete 
stranger to her nor could his sacred profession be recognized 
by his attire—so terrible were her struggles that her husband 
was bound to lend his aid also to master her writhing limbs. 
Presently she fell into a state of complete exhaustion, and 
Father Peach, dismissing the rest of the company, was able 
to talk to her long and seriously. He seems to have been 
quite satisfied that it was a genuine case of diabolic possession, 
and his evidence, carefully expressed and marshalled with 
great moderation, leave no reasonable doubt that this strange 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 235 


sickness owned no natural origin. In the course of conversa- 
tion it appeared that she had never been baptized. A simple 
instruction was given and finding her in excellent dispositions 
Father Peach at once baptized her. During the administra- 
tion of this sacrament she trembled like a leaf, and as the water 
fell upon her she winced pitifully, a spasm of agony distorting 
her countenance. She afterwards averred that it gave her 
as much pain as if boiling water had been poured upon her 
bare flesh. Immediately afterwards there followed a truly 
remarkable change in her health and spirits; her husband 
and sister were overjoyed and thought it no less than a 
miracle. The next day Father Peach visited her again and 
noticed a rapid improvement. Save for a slight weakness 
she seemed perfectly restored, and, says the good father, 
writing a twelvemonth later than the event from notes he 
had taken at the time, there was no return, nor the least 
lingering symptom of her terrible and distressing malady. 

In its issue of 11 October, 1925, The Sunday Express, 
under the heading ‘“ Evil Spirit Haunts A Girl,’ devoted a 
prominent column to the record of some extraordinary 
happenings. The account commences : 

‘*‘ Haunted for twelve months and more by a mischievous 
spirit—called a Poltergeist—driven almost to a state of 
distraction, threatened with a lunatic asylum, and then 
cured by the help of a band of spirit Indians, is the extra- 
ordinary experience of the nineteen-year-old Gwynneth 
Morley, who lives with her widowed mother at Keighley, 
and who was employed in the spinning mills of Messrs. Hay 
and Wright.” 

These phenomena were communicated to Sir Arthur Conan 
Doyle, who informed Mr. Hewet McKenzie, with the result 
that the girl was brought to London for psychic treatment, 
Mr. McKenzie being ‘‘ honorary principal of the British 
College of Psychic Science,” an institution which is advertised 
as the ‘‘ Best equipped Centre for the study of Psychic 
Science in Britain,’’ and announces ‘‘ Lectures on Practical 
Healing,” ‘“‘ Public Clairvoyance,”’ ‘“‘ A Small Exhibition of 
notable water colours . . . representing Soul development, 
or experience of the Soul in ethereal conditions.” ‘‘ The 
College ” is, I am given to understand, a well-known centre 
for spiritistic séances, 


236 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


Gwynneth Morley worked in Mr. McKenzie’s family for 
three months ‘‘ as a housemaid, under close observation, and 
recelving psychic treatment. 

“ Day by day the amazing manifestations of her tormenting 
spirit were noted down. In between the new and full moon 
the disturbances were worse. Everything in the room in 
which Gwynneth happened to be would be thrown about and 
smashed. Tables were lifted and overturned, chairs smashed 
to pieces, bookcases upset, and heavy settees thrown over. 

‘In the kitchen of Holland Park the preparation of meals, 
when Gwynneth was about, was a disconcerting affair. 
Bowls of water would be spilt and pats of butter thrown on 
the floor. | 

‘On another occasion when Gwynneth was in the kitchen 
the housekeeper, who was preparing some grape fruit for 
breakfast, found that one half had disappeared and could be 
found neither in the kitchen nor in the scullery. She got two 
bananas to take its place, and laid them on the table beside 
her; immediately the missing grape fruit whizzed past her 
ear and fell before her and the bananas vanished. Some ten 
minutes later they were found on the scullery table. 

‘ All this time Gwynneth was being treated by psychic 
experts. Every week the girl sat with Mr. and Mrs. McKenzie 
and others. It was found that she was easily hypnotised, 
and that tables moved towards her in the circle. 

‘At other times during the cure the Poltergeist seemed 
to accept challenges. One night after a particularly exciting 
day, Mrs. Barkel magnetised her head and quietened her, 
and Mrs. McKenzie suggested that she should go to bed, 
saying * Nothing happens when you get into bed.’ Going up 
the stairs a small table and a metal vase crashed over, and 
a little later a great noise of banging and tearing was heard 
in Gwynneth’s room. When Mrs. McKenzie went into the 
room it looked as if a tornado had swept over it. 

“ After an active spell from June 21 to June 25 the spirit 
behaved itself until July 1, when the girl had a kind of fit. 
Suddenly she fell off her chair with her hands clenched. They 
laid her on a bed, and she fell into another fit. She gripped 
her own throat powerfully. 

** Since that evening she has had no further attacks, nor 
have there been any disturbances.” 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 237 


The main cause of this apparent cure is said to be the 
mediumship of Mrs. Barkel. 

‘ On many occasions Mrs. Barkel gave Gwynneth excellent 
clairvoyance, describing deceased relatives, friends, and 
incidents in her past life which the girl acknowledged and 
corroborated. 

‘One near relative, says Mr. McKenzie, whose life had 
been misspent, and who had been a heavy drinker, was 
clearly seen. The girl feared and hated this personality, in 
life and beyond death, and had herself often seen him clair- 
voyantly before the disturbances began at all. Through 
Mrs. Barkel’s spirit guide, Mr. McKenzie got into touch with 
him, and he promised to carry out any instructions that 
might be given for the benefit of the girl. 

‘ The request was made that he should withdraw altogether 
from any contact with her and not return except by request. 
* Professor J.,’ a worker on the other side, became interested. 
Mr. McKenzie asked that a band of Indians, who sometimes 
profess to be able to help, should take Gwynneth in hand 
and protect her from the assaults of disturbing influences. 

“The following day Mrs. Barkel described an Indian who 
_had come to help, and improvements were noted from about 
this date. The *‘ professor’ encouraged the treatment by 
suggestion, and told Mr. McKenzie that in a few weeks, with 
the help of the Indian workers, he would place the medium 
in an entirely new psychic condition. Mr. McKenzie says 
that the promise was kept.” 

I have quoted this case at some length owing to the 
prominence afforded it in a popular and widely read news- 
paper. That the facts are substantially true I see no reason 
at all to doubt. It is an ordinary instance of obsession, and 
will be easily recognized as such by those priests whose duty 
has required them to study these distressing phenomena. 
That the interpretation put upon some of the occurrences is 
utterly false I am very certain. The clairvoyance is merely 
playing with fire—I might say, with hell-fire—by those who 
cannot understand what they are about, what forces they are 
thus blindly evoking. ‘‘ Professor J.” and “the band of 
Indians,”’ indeed all these ‘‘ workers on the other side”’ are 
nothing else than evil, or at the least gravely suspect intelli- 
gences, masquerading as spirits of light and goodness. If, 


238 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


indeed, the girl is relieved from obsession one cannot but 
suppose some ulterior motive lurks in the background ; it 
is but part of a scheme organized for purposes of their own 
by dark and secret powers ever alert to trick and trap 
credulous man. The girl, Gwynneth Morley, should have 
been exorcized by a trained and accredited exorcist. These 
amateurs neither know nor even faintly realize the harm 
they may do, the dangers they encounter. <A bold mind, 
such as that of Guazzo, might specify their attempts—well- 
meaning as they are, no doubt—in terms I do not care to 
use. 

At Illfurt, five miles south of Mulhausen in Alsace, is a 
monument consisting of a stone column thirty feet high 
surmounted with a statue of the Immaculate Conception, 
and upon the plinth of the pillar may be read the following 
remarkable inscription: In memoriam perpetuam liberationis 
duorum possessorum Theobaldi et Josephi Burner, obtente per 
intercessionem Beate Marie Uirginis Immaculate, Anno 
Domini 1869. 

Joseph Burner’? and Anna Maria, his wife, were poor but 
intelligent persons, who were not merely respected but even 
looked up to for their probity and industry by their fellow- 
villagers of Illfurt. The family consisted of five children, 
the eldest son, Thiébaut, being born on 21 August, 1855, 
and the second, Joseph, on 29 April, 1857. They were quiet 
lads of average ability, who, when eight years old, were sent 
in the usual course to the local elementary school. In the 
autumn of 1864 both were seized with a mysterious illness 
which would not yield to the ordinary remedies. Dr. Levy, 
of Altkirch, who was called in to examine the case acknow- 
ledged himself completely baffled, and a number of other 
doctors who were afterwards consulted declared themselves 
unable to diagnose such extraordinary symptoms. From 
25 September, 1865, the two boys displayed most abnormal 
phenomena. Whilst lying on their backs they spun suddenly 
round like whirling tops with the utmost rapidity. Con- 
vulsions seized them, twisting and distorting every limb with 
unparalleled mobility, or again their bodies would for hours 
together become absolutely rigid and motionless so that no 
joint could be bent, whilst they lay motionless as stocks or 
stones. Fearful fits of vomiting often concluded these 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 239 


attacks. Sometimes they were dumb for days and could 
only gibber and mow with blazing eyes and slabbering lips, 
sometimes they were deaf so that even a pistol fired close 
to their ears had not the slightest effect.78 Often they became 
fantastically excited, gesticulating wildly and shouting 
incessantly. Their voices were, however, not their normal 
tones nor even those of children at all, but the strong, harsh, 
hoarse articulation of rough and savage men. For hours 
together they would blaspheme in the foulest terms, cursing 
and swearing, and bawling out such hideous obscenities that 
the neighbours took to flight in sheer terror at the horrible 
scenes, whilst the distracted parents knew not whence to 
turn for help or comfort. Not only did the sufferers use the 
filthy vocabulary of the lowest slums, but they likewise spoke 
with perfect correctness and answered fluently in different 
languages, in French, Latin, English, and even in most 
varied dialects of Spanish and Italian, which could by no 
possible means have been known to them in their normal 
state. Nor could they at any time have heard conversation 
in these languages and subconsciously assimilated it. A 
famous case is on record where a servant girl of mean educa- 
tion fell ill and during a delirium began to mutter and babble 
in a language which was recognized as Syriac. This was 
considered to be accounted for when it was discovered that 
formerly she had been in service in a house where there was 
lodging a theological student, who upon the eve of his 
examinations used to walk up and down stairs and pace his 
room saying aloud to himself Syriac roots and vocables, 
which she thus often overheard and which in this way 
registered themselves in her brain. But there could not be 
any such explanation in the case of Thiébaut and Joseph 
Burner, since they did not merely reel out disconnected words 
and phrases in any one or two tongues, but conversed easily 
and sensibly in a large variety of languages and even in 
dialects. This has always been considered one of the genuine © 
signs of diabolic possession, as is stated in the third article 
of De Ezxorcizandis Obsessis a Daemonio: ‘3. In primis, 
ne facile credat, aliquem a demonio obsessum esse, sed nota 
habeat ea signa, quibus obsessus dignoscitur ab iis, qui uel 
atra bile, uel morbo aliquo laborant. Signa autem obsidentis 
demonis sunt: ignota lingua loqui pluribus uerbis, uel 


240 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


loquentem intelligere ; distantia et occulta patefacere ; uires 
super etatis seu conditionis naturam ostendere ; et id genus 
alia, que cum plurima concurrunt, maiora sunt indicia.” 
Moreover, both Thiébaut and Joseph Burner repeatedly and 
in exactest detail described events which were happening 
at a distance, and upon investigation their accounts were 
afterwards found to be precisely true in every particular. 
Their strength was also abnormal, and often in their 
paroxysms and convulsions it needed the utmost exertions 
of three powerful men severally to hold these lads who were 
but nine and seven years old. 

It was noticed at the very beginning of these maladies 
that the patients were thrown into the most violent fits and 
every symptom of disease and disorder exacerbated by the 
presence of any sacramental such as holy water, or medals, 
rosaries, and other objects which had been blessed according 
to the ritual. They seemed particularly enraged by the 
blessed Medal of S. Benedict and pictures of Our Lady of 
Perpetual Succour. On one occasion Monsieur Ignace Spies, 
the Maire of Selestat, a man of exceptional devotion and piety, 
held before their eyes a Relic of S. Gerard Majella,’ the 
Redemptorist thaumaturge, when their shrieks and yells 
were truly terrific, finally dying away in inhuman whines and 
groans of despair. It so happened that a Corpus Christi pro- 
cession passed the house, opposite which an Altar of Repose 
had been erected. The children, who were in bed, knew 
nothing of this and seemed to lie in a deep stupor. However, 
as the Blessed Sacrament approached their behaviour is said 
to have been indescribable. They poured forth torrents of 
filth and profanity, distorting their limbs into a thousand 
unnatural postures, their eyes almost starting from their 
heads, a crisis which was succeeded by a sudden horrible 
composure, whilst they crept away into the furthest corners 
of the room moaning, panting, and retching as if in mortal 
agony. Above all, pictures and Medals of Our Lady and the 
invocation of Her Most Holy Name filled the possessed with 
terror and rage. At any mention of ‘“‘ the Great Lady,” as 
they termed Her, they would curse and howl in so monstrous 
a way that all who had heard them shook and sweated with 
fear. 

The abbé Charles Brey, parish priest of Ilfurt, quickly | 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 241 


made up his mind as to the diabolic nature of the phenomena. 
It was an undoubted case of possession, since in no other 
way could what was taking place be explained. Accordingly 
he sent to his diocesan, Monsignor Andreas Riiss (1842-87) a 
full account of such extraordinary and fearful events. The 
Bishop, however, was far from satisfied that these things 
could not be accounted for naturally. In fact it was only 
after three or four years’ delay that at the instance of the 
Dean of Altkirch he decided to order a special ecclesiastical 
investigation. He finally appointed for this task three acute 
theologians, Monsignor Stumpf,®® Superior of his Grand 
Seminary at Strasburg; Monsignor Freyburger, Vicar-General 
of the diocese; and Monsieur Sester, rector of Mulhausen. 
These priests, then, presented themselves unexpectedly at 
the Burner’s house on Tuesday morning, 13 April, 1869, at 
10 o’clock. It was found that Joseph Burner had already 
concealed himself, and it was only after a prolonged search 
he could with difficulty be dragged from under his bed where 
he had taken refuge. Thiébaut feigned to be unconscious 
of the presence of strangers. The inquiry lasted for more 
than two hours, and it was not until past noon that the 
investigators left the house. Meanwhile they had witnessed 
the most hideous scenes, and their minds were quite made 
up as to the reality of the possession. They shortly presented 
their report to the Bishop, who then, and not until then, 
allowed himself to be convinced of the facts. 

Even so, the prudent prelate ordered fresh precautions to 
be taken. At the beginning of September, 1869, Thiébaut 
was conveyed in the company of his unhappy mother, to the 
orphanage of S. Charles at Schiltigheim, where he was to be 
lodged whilst the case was investigated de nouo by Monsignor 
Rapp, Monsignor Stumpf, and Father Eicher, S.J., Superior 
of the Jesuit house at Strasburg. At the same time Father 
Hausser, the chaplain of S. Charles, and Father Schrantzer, 
a well-known scholar and psychologist, were to keep the boy 
systematically but secretly under the closest observation. 

It was decided to proceed to exorcism, and a priest of great 
reverence and experience, Father Souquat, was commissioned 
by the Bishop to perform the solemn rite. At two o’clock 
on Sunday, 8 October, Thiébaut was forcibly brought into 
the chapel of S. Charles, which hitherto he had always 

R 


242 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


sedulously avoided, and when compelled to enter he uttered 
without intermission such hoarse yells that it was necessary 
to remove him for fear of scandal and alarming the other 
inmates. The lad, however, was now held fast by the abbés 
Schrantzer and Hausser, assisted by Charles André, the 
gardener of the establishment, a stalwart and muscular 
Hercules. The sufferer stood upon a carpet spread just before 
the communion rails, his face turned towards the tabernacle. 
He struggled and writhed in the grasp of those who were 
restraining him; his face was scarlet; his eyes closed ; 
whilst from his swollen and champing lips there flowed 
down a stream of thick yellowish froth which fell in great 
viscous gouts to the floor. The Litanies began, and at the 
words ‘‘ Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis”’ a hideous yell burst 
from his throat. The exorcizer unmoved continued the 
prayers and gospels of the Ritual. Meanwhile the possessed 
blasphemed and defied their utmost efforts. It was resolved 
to recommence upon the following day. Thiébaut, accord- 
ingly, was confined in a strait jacket and strapped down in 
a red arm-chair, around which stood the three guards as 
before. The evil spirit roared and howled in a deep bass 
voice, raising a terrific din; the boy’s limbs strained and 
contorted but the bonds held tight ; his face was livid; his 
mouth flecked with the foam of slobbering saliva. In a firm 
voice the priest adjured the demon; he held the crucifix 
before his eyes, and finally a statue of Our Lady with the 


words: ‘ Unclean spirit, disappear before the face of the 
Immaculate Conception! She commands! Thou must obey ! 
Thou must depart!” The assistants upon their knees 


fervently recited the Memorare, when the air was rent by 
a yell of hideous agony, the boy’s limbs were convulsed in 
one sharp convulsion, and suddenly he lay still wrapped in 
a deep slumber. At the end of about an hour he awoke 
gently and gazed about him with wondering eyes. ‘‘ Where 
am I?” he asked. ‘‘Do you not know me?” questioned 
the abbé Schrantzer. ‘‘ No, father, I do not,” was the reply. 
In a few days Thiébaut was able to return home, worn and 
weak but bright and happy. Of all that happened during 
those fateful years he had not the smallest recollection. He 
returned to school, and was in every respect a normal healthy 
boy. 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 24.3 


Joseph, who had grown steadily worse, was meantime 
secluded from his brother, pending the preparations for his 
exorcism. On 27 October he was taken very early in the 
morning to the cemetery chapel near Illfurt. Only the 
parents, Mons. Ignace Spies, Professor Lachemann,. and 
some half a dozen more witnesses were present, as the affair 
was conducted in the utmost privacy. At six o’clock the 
abbé Charles Brey said Mass, after which he exorcized the 
unhappy victim. During three successive hours they renewed 
prayers and adjurations, until at last some present began to 
feel discouraged. But the glowing faith of the priest sustained 
them, and at length with a loud groan that sounded like a 
deep roar the boy, who had been struggling and screeching 
in paroxysms of frantic fury all the while, fell back into a 
deep swoon and lay motionless. After no long pause he sat 
up, opened his eyes as awaking from sleep, and was over- 
come with amazement to find himself in a church with strange 
people around him. 

Neither Thiébaut nor Joseph ever experienced any recur- 
rence of this strange malady. The former died when he was 
only sixteen years old on 38 April, 1871. The latter, who 
obtained a situation at Zillisheim, died there in 1882 at the 
age of twenty-five. 

An even more recent case of possession, which has been | 
authoritatively studied in minutest detail and at first hand, 
presents many of the same features.*! Héléne-Joséphine 
Poirier, the daughter of an artisan family—her father was 
a mason—was born on 5 November, 1834, at Coullons, a 
small village some ten miles from Gien in the district of the 
Loire. Whilst still young she was apprenticed to Mlle Justine 
Beston, a working dressmaker, and soon became skilful with 
her needle and a remarkable embroideress. Already she had 
attracted attention by her sincere and modest piety, and 
was thought highly of by the parish priest, M. Preslier, a. 
man of unusual discernment and the soundest common 
~ sense. On the night of 25 March, 1850, she was suddenly 
awakened by a series of sharp raps, which soon became 
violent blows, as if struck upon the walls of the small attic 
where she slept. In terror she rushed into her parents’ room 
next door, and they returned with her to search. Nothing 
at all could be discovered, and she was persuaded to go 


244 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


back to bed. Although they could actually see no cause for 
alarm her parents had heard the extraordinary noises. 
‘From this date,’ says M. Preslier, ‘‘ the life of Héléne in 
the midst of such terrible physical and moral suffering that 
she might well have given utterance to the complaints of 
holy Job.’ 

These manifestations to Héléne Poirier may not unfittingly 
be compared with the famous ‘“‘ Rochester knockings,” the 
phenomenon of the rappings at Hydesville in 1848 at the 
house of the Fox family, which by many writers is considered 
to be the beginning of that world-wide movement known as 
Spiritism or Spiritualism in its modern manifestations and 
recrudescence. °3 

Some months after this event Héléne suddenly fell rigid 
to the ground as if she had been thrown down by some strong 
hands. She was able to get up immediately but only to 
fall again. It was thought she was epileptic or at any rate 
seized with some unusual attack, some fit or convulsion. 
But after a careful observation of her case Dr. Azéma, the 
local practitioner, shrewdly remarked: ‘‘ Nobody here but 
the Priest can cure you.’ From this time disorders of spirit 
and physical maladies increased with unprecedented rapidity 
and violence. ‘‘ Her physical and mental sufferings, which 
began on 25 March, 1850, continued until her death on 
8 January, 1914, that is to say during a period of sixty-four 
years. But those of diabolic origin ceased towards the end 
of 1897. So the diabolic attacks actually lasted for some 
seven-and-forty years, and for six years of this time she was 
possessed.”’84 It was in January, 18638, it first became 
undeniably evident that her sufferings, her spasms, and 
painful trances had a supernatural origin. Theabbé Bougaud, 
Archdeacon of Orleans, having interviewed her, advised that 
she should be brought to the Bishop, Monsignor Dupanloup, 
and made arrangements for her to stay at a Visitation convent 
in the suburbs, promising that a commission of theologians 
and doctors should examine her case. On Thursday, 28 
October, 1865, Héléne accordingly commenced a retreat at 
the convent, where she was kindly received. M. Bougaud 
saw her for about two minutes, and she was handed an 
official order which would allow her access to the Bishop 
without waiting for a summons from his lordship or any 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 245 


other undue delay. But there was some misunderstanding, 
for on the Friday a doctor of high repute called at the convent, 
as he had been requested, interrogated and examined her 
for some three-quarters of an hour and then roundly informed 
the Mother Superior that she was mad, stark mad, and had 
better be sent home at once. He seems to have impressed 
the Bishop with his report, for Monsignor Dupanloup sent a 
messenger to direct the nuns to dismiss her forthwith, and 
accordingly she was perforce taken back to Coullons after a 
fruitless journey of bitter disappointments and discourage- 
ment. Many persons now began to regard her with suspicion, 
but in the following year, 1866, the Bishop, whilst visiting 
Coullons for an April confirmation, granted her an interview 
which caused him very considerably to modify his first 
opinion, and M. Bougaud, who saw her in September, declared 
himself convinced of the supernatural origin of the symptoms 
she displayed. 

The most terrible obsessions now attacked her, and more 
than once she was driven to the verge of suicide and despair. 
‘From 25 March, 1850, until March, 1868, Héléne was only 
obsessed. This obsession lasted 18 years. At the end of this 
time she was both obsessed and possessed for 18 months. From 
this double agony of obsession and possession she was 
completely delivered by the exorcisms, which the Bishop had 
sanctioned, at Orleans, on 19 April, 1869. Four months’ 
peace followed, until with heroic generosity she voluntarily 
submitted to new inflictions. 

* At the end of August, 1869, she accepted from the hands 
of Our Lord the agony of a new obsession and possession in 
order to obtain the conversion of the famous general Ducrot. 
When he was converted, she was delivered from her torments 
at Lourdes on 8 September, 1875, the cure being effected by 
the prayers of 15,000 pilgrims who had assembled there. 
The obsession and possession in their new form had lasted five . 
years. During the forty years which passed before her death, 
she was never again subject to possession, but she was 
continually obsessed, the attacks now being of short duration, 
now long and severe. The sufferings of every kind which she 
endured as well she offered with the intention of the triumph 
and good estate of God’s priests. Why she was originally 
thus persecuted by the Devil for nineteen years, and with 


246 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


what intention she offered those torments from which she 
was delivered by the exorcisms directed by the Bishop, must 
always remain a secret.’’®° On Tuesday, 18 August, 1867, a 
supernormal impulse came over her to write a paper full of 
the most hideous blasphemies against Our Lord and His 
Blessed Mother, and, what is indeed significant, to draw blood 
from her arm and to sign therewith a deed giving herself 
over body and soul to Satan. This she happily resisted after 
a terrible struggle. Upon the following 28 August reliable 
witnesses saw her levitated from the ground on two distinct 
occasions. With this phenomenon we may compare the 
levitation of mediums at spiritistic séances. Sir William 
Crookes in The Quarterly Journal of Science, January, 1874, 
states that “‘ There are at least a hundred recorded instances 
of Mr. Home’s rising from the ground.” Of the same medium 
he writes: ‘“‘On three separate occasions have seen him 
raised completely from the floor of the room.” 

In March, 1868, it became evident that the poor sufferer 
was actually possessed. Fierce convulsive fits seized her; 
she suddenly fell with a maniacal fury and a deep hoarse 
voice uttered the most astounding blasphemies ; if the Holy 
Names of Jesus and Mary were spoken in her presence she 
gnashed her teeth and literally foamed at the mouth; she 
was unable to hear the words Et caro Uerbum factum est 
without an access of insane rage which spent itself in wild 
gestures and an incoherent howling. She was interrogated 
in Latin, and answered the questions volubly and easily in 
the same tongue. The case attracted considerable attention, 
and was reported by the Comte de Maumigny to Padre 
Picivillo, the editor of the Civilid Cattolica, who gave an 
account thereof to the Holy Father. The saintly Pius [X*¢ 
showed himself full of sympathy, and even sent through the 
Comte de Maumigny a message of most salutary advice 
recommending great caution and the avoidance of all kinds 
of curiosity or advertisement. 

In February, 1869, when interrogated by several priests 
Hélene gave most extraordinary details concerning bands 
of Satanists. ‘‘ In order to gain admission it is necessary to 
bring one or more consecrated Hosts, and to deliver these to 
the Devil, who in a materialized form visibly presides over 
the assembly. The neophyte is obliged to profane the Sacred 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 247 


Species in a most horrible manner, to worship the Devil with 
humblest adoration, and to perform with him and the other 
persons present the most bestial acts of unbridled obscenity, 
the foulest copulations. Three towns, Paris, Rome, and 
Tours, are the headquarters of the Satanic bands.’’8? She 
also spoke of a gang of devil-worshippers at Toulouse. It 
is obvious that a mere peasant woman could have no natural 
knowledge of these abominations, the details concerning 
which were unhappily only too true. 

In the following April Héléne was taken to Orleans to be 
examined and solemnly exorcized. The interrogatories were 
conducted by Monsieur Desbrosses, a consultor in theology 
for the diocese, Monsieur Bougaud, and Monsieur Mallet, 
Superior of the Grand Seminary. They witnessed the most 
terrible crisis; the sufferer was tortured by fierce cramps 
and spasms ; she howled like a wild beast ; but they persisted 
patiently. Mons. Mallet questioned her on difficult and 
obscure points in theology and philosophy using now Latin, 
now Greek. She replied fluently in both tongues, answering 
his queries concisely, clearly, and to the point, incontestable 
proof that she was influenced by some supernormal power. 
Two or three days later the Bishop was present at a similar 
examination, and forthwith commissioned his own director, 
Monsieur Roy, a professor at the Seminary, to undertake the 
exorcisms. With him were associated Monsieur Mallet, the 
parish priest of Coullons, and Monsieur Gaduel, Vicar-General 
of the diocese. Two nuns and Mlle Preslier held the patient. 
It was found necessary to repeat the rite five times upon 
successive days. On the last occasion the cries of the unhappy 
Hélene were fearful to hear. She writhed and foamed in 
paroxysms of rage; she blasphemed and cursed God, calling 
loudly upon the fiends of hell; she broke free from all 
restraint, hurling chairs and furniture in every direction with 
the strength of five men; it was with the utmost difficulty 
she could be seized and restrained before some serious 
mischief was done; at last with an unearthly yell, twice 
repeated, her limbs relaxed, and after a short period of 
insensibility she seemed to awake, calm and composed, as if 
from a restful slumber. The possession had lasted thirteen 
months from March, 1868, to April, 1869. 

Into the details of her second possession from 28 August, 


248) THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


1869, until 3 September, 1874, it is hardly necessary to enter 
at any length. Monsieur Preslier noted: ‘‘ The second crisis 
of possession was infinitely more terrible than the first ; 
Ist, owing to the length; the first lasted thirteen months, 
the second five years. 2nd, the first was relieved was a 
number of heavenly consolations, but very little solace was 
obtained during the second. 8rd, there was much bodily suffer- 
ing in the first, in the second there were far keener mental 
sufferings and more exquisite pain.’”’88 She was finally and 
completely delivered at Lourdes on Thursday, 8 September, 
1874, It is not to be supposed that she passed the remaining 
forty years of her life without occasional manifestations of 
extraordinary phenomena. After much sickness, cheerfully 
and smilingly borne, she made a good end in her eightieth 
year, on 8 January, 1914, and is buried in the little village 
cemetery of her native place. 

We have here the case of a woman who was mediumistic 
and clairvoyant to an almost unexampled degree, and it is 
very certain that if these would-be fortune-tellers and mages 
who so freely advertise their powers in many spiritistic 
journals to-day truly realized to what terrible dangers and 
very real psychic perils the use and even the mere possession 
of such faculties expose them, they would, so far from 
trafficking in the presumption of abnormal gifts, regard them 
with caution and indeed shrink from any occult practice at 
all, lest haply they become the prey of controls and influences 
so cunning, so potent for evil, as to merge them body and 
soul in untold miseries and shadows darker even than the 
bitterness of death. 

The modern Spiritistic movement, so strongly supported 
by recent scientific utterances, is increasingly affecting all 
classes and conditions of society, and is beginning in every 
direction to undermine and actually to usurp the religious 
belief and convictions of thousands of earnest and seriously 
inclined but not very accurately informed or well-instructed 
persons. The basis of the movement is the claim that the 
spirits of the dead are continually seeking to communicate 
and, indeed, communicating with us through the agency of 
sensitives, so that it is possible to get into touch and to 
converse with our dear ones who have passed from this life. 
It is hardly necessary to emphasize the almost infinite 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 249 


consolation and comfort sucha doctrine holds forthe bereaved, 
how eagerly and with what yearning mourners will embrace 
such teaching, and how perseveringly and with what tender 
agonies of an hungered love they will devote themselves to 
the practices they imagine will place them in closest con- 
nexion and communion with those whom they have lost 
awhile, but whose voices they ever long to hear, whose faces 
they long to see once again. It is a matter of common 
knowledge that during and since the Great War Spiritism 
has increased tenfold ; many who were wont to laugh at it, 
who refused to listen to its claims and scorned it as futile 
nonsense, are now among its most enthusiastic devotees. 
In truth there must be few of us who cannot appreciate the 
irresistible influence such beliefs will have upon the mind. 
Spiritism is seemingly full of joy, and hope, and promise, 
and happiness. It will wipe all tears of sorrow from poor 
human eyes ; it is balm to the wounded heart ; divine solace 
and sympathy; the barriers of death are broken down; 
mortality is robbed of its terrors. 

Were it true, could we summon to our side the spirits of 
those whom we have so fondly cherished and converse with 
them of things holy and eternal, could we learn wisdom from 
their fuller knowledge, could we be assured in their own sweet 
accents of their fadeless love, could we now and again be 
comforted with a sight of their well-known faces, the touch 
of their hands upon ours, were it God’s will that this should 
be so, then assuredly Spiritism is a most blessed and sacred 
thing, consolation to the afflicted, succour to the distressed, 
a shining light upon earth’s dark ways, a very ready help to 
us all. But if on the other hand there is reason and grave 
reason to suppose that the spirits, with whom it is possible 
under certain exceptional conditions and by certain remark- 
able devices to establish a contact, although often claiming 
to be departed friends or relatives and supporting their | 
contention (we acknowledge) with no little plausibility, are 
again and again found to be masquerading intelligences, in 
some cases undoubtedly actors of excellence who play their 
part for a time with consummate skill, but who have never 
at any séance whatsoever anywhere been able conclusively 
to demonstrate their identity, if in fact these manifesting 
intelligences are deceivers, imposing for purposes of their own 


250 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


a fraudulent impersonation upon those who with breaking 
hearts are so eagerly longing to communicate with son or 
husband fallen in battle, it may be, or on some lone shore, if 
they are proven liars, if their messages are trivial, ambiguous, 
cryptic, incapable of verification, shifty, ignorant, nay worse, 
blasphemous and hideously obscene, then are we justified— 
and we are in point of fact fully and completely justified— 
in concluding that the spirits are not those of the departed, 
but evil intelligences who never have been and never will 
be incarnate, unclean spirits, demons, and then assuredly 
Spiritism is most foul, most loathly, most dangerous, and 
most damnable. 

The mediums, who of their own will freely open the door 
to these spirits, who invite them to enter, stand in the most 
deadly peril. A Spiritist of many years’ experience who saw 
not too late the hazard and abandoned that creed, writes as 
follows: “Spirit communion soon absorbs all the time, 
faculties, hopes, fears, and desires of its devotees, and herein 
lies one of the greatest dangers of spiritualism. Infatuated 
by communication with the unseen inhabitants of the hidden 
world, the medium loses his or her interest in the things 
pertaining to everyday life and interest. A soft and pleasing 
atmosphere appears to surround them. The realities of flesh 
and blood are lost in ideal dreaming and there is no incentive 
to break away from a state of existence so agreeable, no 
matter how monstrous are the delusions practised by the 
spirits. Their consciences are so callous as if seared with a 
hot iron, sin has to them lost its wickedness, and they are 
willing dupes to unseen beings who delight to control their 
every faculty. Very seldom has a full-fledged spiritualist 
been able to comprehend the necessity and blessedness of the 
religion of Jesus Christ, and to withdraw from the morbid 
conditions into which he has fallen. .. . 

“For about three months I was in the power of spirits, 
having a dual existence, and greatly tormented by their 
contradictory and unsatisfactory operations. . . . They tor- 
mented me to a very severe extent, and I desired to be freed 
from them. I lost much of my confidence in them, and their 
blasphemy and uncleanness shocked me. But they were my 
constant companions. I could not get rid of them. They 
tempted me to suicide and murder, and to other sins. I was 


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DIABOLIC POSSESSION 251 


fearfully beset and bewildered and deluded. There was no 
human help for me. They led me into some extravagances 
of action, and to believe, in a measure, a few of their delusions, 
often combining religion and devilry in a most. surprising 
manner.’’ 89 

In my own experience, I myself, not onee, but over and 
over again, have seen all these symptoms unmistakably 
marked in those whose sole interest and aim in life seemed 
to be a constant attendance at séances. I have watched, in 
spite of every effort unable to check and dissuade, the fear- 
fully rapid development of such characteristics in persons 
who have begun to dabble with Spiritism, at first no doubt 
in moods of levity and wanton curiosity, but soon with 
hectic anxiety and the most morbid absorption. Some 
fifteen years ago in a well-known English provincial town a 
circle was formed by a number of friends to experiment with 
table-turning, psychometry, the planchette, ouija-boards, 
crystal-gazing, and the like. They were, perhaps, a little 
tired of the usual round of social engagements, dances, 
concerts, bridge, the theatre, dinner parties, and all those 
mildly pleasurable businesses which go to make up life, or 
at least a great portion of life, for so many. They wanted 
some new excitement, something a little out of the ordinary. 
A lady, just returned home from a prolonged visit to London, 
had (it seems) been taken to some Spiritistic meeting, and 
she was full of the wonders both witnessed and heard there. 
The sense of the eerie, the unknown, lent a spice of adventure 
too. The earlier meetings were informal, first at one house, 
now at another. They began by being infrequent, almost 
casual, at fairly long intervals. Next a certain evening each 
week was fixed for these gatherings, which soon were fully 
attended by all concerned. No member would willingly miss 
a single reunion. Before long they met twice, three times, 
every evening in the week. Professional mediums were 
engaged who travelled down from London and other great 
cities, some at no small distance, to give strange exhibitions 
of their powers. I myself met two of these experts, a man 
and a woman, both of whose names I have since seen adver- 
tised in Spiritistic journals of a very recent date, and I am 
bound to say that I was most unfavourably impressed in each 
instance. Not that I for a moment think they were fraudu- 


252 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


lent, nor do I suspect any vulgar trickery or pose; they were 
undoubtedly honest, thoroughly convinced and sincere, which 
makes the matter ten times worse. And so from being mere 
idle triflers at a new game, incredulous and a little mocking, 
the whole company became besotted by their practices, 
fanatics whose thoughts were always and ever centred and 
concentrated upon their communion with spirits, who talked 
of nothing else, who seemed only to live for those evenings 
when they might meet and enter—as it were—another world. 
Argument, pleading, reproof, authority, official admonish- 
ment, all proved useless; one could only stand by and see 
the terrible thing doing its deadly work. The symptoms were 
exactly as above described. In two cases, men, the moral 
fibre was for a while apparently destroyed altogether; in 
another case, a woman, there was obsession, and persons who 
either knew nothing of, or had no sort of belief in, Spiritism, 
whispered of eccentricities, of outbursts of uncontrolled 
passion and ravings, which pointed to a disordered mind, to 
an asylum. All sank into a state of apathy ; former interests 
vanished ; the amenities of social intercourse were neglected 
and forgotten ; old friendships allowed to drop for no reason 
whatsoever ; a complete change of character for the worse, 
a terrible deterioration took place; the physical health 
suffered ; their faces became white and drawn, the eyes dull 
and glazed, save when Spiritism was discussed, and then they 
lit with hot unholy fires; one heard covert gossip that 
hinted of crude debauch, of blasphemous speeches, of licence 
and degradation. Fortunately by a series of providential 
events the circle was broken up; outside circumstances 
compelled the principals to fall away, and what was 
doubtless a more potent factor than any, one or two were 
suddenly brought to realize the deadly peril and the folly 
of their proceedings. It proved a hard struggle indeed to rid 
themselves of the controls to which they had so blindly and 
so utterly submitted ; their wills were weakened, their health 
impaired ; more than once they slid back again into the old 
danger zone, more than once they were on the verge of 
giving up the contest in despair. But under direction and 
availing themselves of those means of grace the Church so 
bounteously proffers they persevered, and were at length 
made clean. 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 253 


There must be many who have had similar experiences, 
who know intimately, even if they have not actually had to 
rescue and to guide, those who have been meshed and trapped 
by Spiritism and are endeavouring to escape. They will 
appreciate how difficult is the task, they will realize how 
pernicious, how potent, how evil, such toils may be. Nobody 
who has had to deal with sensitives, with poor dupes who are 
eager to abandon their practices, can think lightly of 
Spiritism. 

That Spiritism opens the door to demoniac possession, so 
often classed as lunacy, is generally acknowledged by all save 
the prejudiced and superstitious. As far back as 1877 
Dr. L. S. Forbes Winslow wrote in Spiritualistic Madness : 
“ Ten thousand unfortunate people are at the present time 
confined in lunatic asylums on account of having tampered 
with the supernatural.” And quoting an American journal 
he goes on to say: ‘‘ Not a week passes in which we do not 
hear that some of these unfortunates destroy themselves by 
suicide, or are removed to a lunatic asylum. The mediums | 
often manifest signs of an abnormal condition of their mental 
faculties, and among certain of them are found unequivocal 
indications of a true demoniacal possession. The evil spreads 
rapidly, and it will produce in a few years frightful results. 
- . . [wo French authors of spiritualistic works, who wrote 
Le Monde Spirituel and Sauvons le genre humain, died insane 
in an asylum; these two men were distinguished in their 
respective professions; one as a highly scientific man, the 
other as an advocate well learned in the Law. These 
individuals placed themselves in communication with spirits 
by means of tables. I could quote many such instances 
where men of the highest ability have, so to speak, neglected 
all and followed the doctrines of Spiritualism only to end 
their days in the lunatic asylum.” 

Some half a dozen years ago an inquiry was undertaken. 
and there was circulated an interrogatory or enquéte which 
invited opinions upon (1) “the situation as regards the 
renewed interest in psychic phenomena”’; (2) whether this 
“ psychic renewal” denoted a “‘ passing from a logical and 
scientific (deductive) to a spiritual and mystic (inductive) 
conception of life,” or ‘“‘a reconciliation between the two, 
that is between science and faith ” ;9° (3) “‘ the most powerful 


254 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


argument for, or against, human survival’; (4) ‘‘ the best 
means of organizing this (psychic) movement in the highest 
interest, philosophical, religious and scientific, of the nation, 
especially as a factor of durable peace.” Five-and-fifty of 
the answers were collected and published under the title 
Spiritualism: Its Present-Day Meaning,®! a book which 
certainly makes most interesting and illuminating if extremely 
varied reading. Being a symposium, all schools of thought 
are represented, and I would venture to add that among the 
contributions are some outpourings which evince no thought 
at all, a fact which is of itself not without considerable 
significance. We have the unflinching logic and sound 
common-sense of Father Bernard Vaughan, whose verdict is 
reiterated by the Rev. James Adderley and the Rev. J. A. V. 
Magee; the concise, outspoken, pertinent and telling com- 
ments of General Booth; the vague hopelessly inadequate 
flotsam of Dr. Percy Dearmer,®? vapid stuff which makes 
a theologian writhe; the sweet sugary sentimentalism of 
Miss Evelyn Underhill, so anzemic, so obviously popular, and 
so ingenuously miscalled mysticism ; the dull worthless dross 
of Mr. McCabe’s superstitious materialism; the feverish 
panicky special pleading of the convinced Spiritists. Here, 
too, we have much that directly bears out our present 
contention, the medical evidence of such names as Sir Bryan 
Donkin; Dr. W. H. Stoddart, who treats of ‘‘ The Danger 
to Mental Sanity”; with Dr. Bernard Hollander on ‘‘ The 
Peril of Spirits” ; and Dr. A. T. Schofield on ‘‘ The Spiritist 
Kpidemic.”’ Thus Dr. Stoddart writes: ‘‘ In some cases the 
spiritualistic hallucinations so dominate the whole mental 
life that the condition amounts to insanity; and I can 
confirm Sir Bryan Donkin’s statement that spiritualistic 
inquiries tend to induce insanity.’’®3 Dr. Hollander is even 
more emphatic: ‘‘ The practice is a dangerous one. Persons 
become intoxicated with spirits of that nature as others do 
with spirits of another kind. And similarly, as not all persons 
who take alcohol get drunk, so not all spiritualists show the 
effects of their indulgences. . . . But that is no proof against 
the harmful nature of these practices, and, as a mental 
specialist, I confess I have seen victims of both, and that the 
one addicted to material spirits is the easier to treat.’’%4 
Spiritism, Dr. Schofield points out, ‘‘has been known to 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 255 


Christians for 2000 years. Any benefit derived therefrom is 
more than neutralized by the very doubtful surroundings and 
character of the supposed revelation (I say ‘supposed ’ 
because it has been known so long). If, however, it must be 
coupled with the dangers, horrors, and frauds that so often 
in modern Spiritism accompany the knowledge of the unseen, 
we are almost as well without it, at any rate from such a 
source. , . . There can be no doubt the epidemic will 
eventually subside, but before it does, the vast mischief of 
a spiritual tidal wave of very doubtful origin will be most 
disastrously done, and thousands of unstable souls will be 
wrecked in spirit, if not in mind and body as well. . . . To 
class it as a religion is an insult to the faith of Christ,’?9 

Sir William Barrett utters a word of grave import: ‘‘ All 
excitable and unbalanced minds need to be warned away 
from a subject that may cause, and in many cases has caused, 
serious mental derangement.’®® ‘ Spiritualism,” says Father 
Bernard Vaughan, “‘ only too often means loss of health, loss 
of morals and loss of faith. Consult not Sir Oliver Lodge or 
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or Mr. Vale Owen, but your family 
medical adviser, and he will tell you to keep away from the 
séance-room as you would from an opium den. In fact, the 
drug habit is not more fatal than the practice of Spiritualism 
in very many cases. Read the warning note sounded by 
Dr. Charles Mercier, or by Dr. G. H. Robertson or by Colonel 
R. H. Elliot, and be satisfied that yielding to Spiritualism is 
qualifying for an asylum. You may not get there but you 
deserve to be an inmate.’°? The following letter written by 
Miss Mary G. Cardwell, M.B., Ch.B., from the Oldham Union 
Infirmary, speaks for itself: ‘‘ One day recently I admitted 
a woman of thirty-five years to the hospital of which I have 
the honour to be resident medical officer. She was sent in 
as incapable of looking after herself or her family. She told 
me that she was a medium, having been introduced into 
Spiritualism by a man, also a medium, who said he could 
thereby help her over some family worries. As a direct 
result of this, she has neglected her children, so that the 
public authorities have removed them from her care, her 
home is ruined, and she herself is a mental and moral wreck. 
She had paid the other medium for his services by the 
sacrifice of her virtue.’’®& And this is no isolated, no 


256 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


exceptional, instance. I have myself known precisely similar 
cases. | 

Occasionally some particularly shocking incident will find 
its way into the public Press and we have records such as 
the following, which was headed ‘‘ Family of Eleven Mad. 
Burning Mania after Séance. Child to be Sacrificed. 

‘“The story of an entire family of eleven persons, in the 
village of Krucktenhofen, Bavaria, going out of their minds 
after a spiritualistic séance is sent by the Exchange Paris 
correspondent, quoting the Berliner Tageblatt. 

‘* Renouncing the goods of this world, the father, mother, 
three sons, two elder daughters, and subsequently the remain- 
ing four younger members of the family, joined in burning 
their furniture and bedding. 

‘* Finally, the three-months-old child of one of the daughters 
was about to be burnt when neighbours interfered. The 
whole family is now in an asylum.”’ (Daily Mirror, 19 May, 
1921.) 

‘Camouflage it as you will, Spiritualism with its kindred 
superstitions, such as necromancy and occultism, is a 
recrudescence of the old, old practices cultivated in the days 
of long ago.’’®® In other words this ‘‘ New Religion ”’ is but 
the Old Witchcraft. There is, I venture to assert, not a single 
phenomenon of modern Spiritism which cannot be paralleled 
in the records of the witch trials and examinations; not a 
single doctrine which was not believed and propagated by 
the damnable Gnostic heresies of long ago. 

Some of the definitions of Spiritism given by spiritists 
themselves are sufficiently startling. They frankly tell us 
that ‘‘ Spiritualism is the science or art of communion with 
spirits. . . . It does not follow that because a communication 
comes from ‘the unseen,’ it is therefore from God, as a 
revelation. It may be from the latest dead lounger, as an 
amusement,’’!99 or, I would add, from a demon as a snare. 
There is something inexpressibly ugly and revolting about 
this cold-blooded necromancy defined in set categorical 
terms. 

Modern Spiritism is usually considered to have had its 
origin in America. In the year 1848 there lived at Hydes- 
ville, Wayne, New York State, a family of the Methodist 
persuasion named Fox ; a father, mother, and two daughters, 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 257 


Margaretta and Katie, aged fifteen and twelve respectively. 
During the month of March all the household began to 
declare that they were kept awake at night by the most 
extraordinary noises, loud knockings on the wall, and foot- 
steps. The children amused themselves by trying to imitate 
the noises ; they tapped on the wainscot, and to their great 
Surprise answering taps came back, so that they found they 
could get into communication with the unknown agency. 
They would ask a question and invite it to respond with 
one sharp rap for “no” and three for “ yes,” and thus it 
continually replied. They further held actual conversations 
in this way by repeating the alphabet and establishing a 
regular code. Mrs. Fox then began to make inquiries concern- 
ing the former occupants of the house, and soon discovered that 
a pedlar named Charles Rayn was said to have been murdered 
in the very bedroom where her two girls were sleeping, and that 
his body had been buried in the cellar. Public curiosity was 
aroused, and it was now generally believed that it was the 
spirit of the unfortunate victim who haunted the farm-house, 
endeavouring to convey some message to those whom he had 
left. Actually no body was found in the cellar, and the 
alleged murderer whose name was given, appeared at 
Hydesville and ‘‘ threw very hot water on the story.’ Later 
when the family moved to Rochester—it is said they were 
practically driven out of Hydesville by the Methodist minister 
there—the rappings followed them, and the whole town was 
speedily on the tiptoe of excitement. It was then given out 
that the noises were communications from the spirits of those 
recently dead, and that the Fox girls, who apparently 
attracted them, were gifted with some special faculty which 
rendered intercourse of this kind possible. People soon began 
to flock round them asking their assistance in getting messages 
from their departed relatives and friends ; the two girls held 
regular séances, and netted a fair sum of money. It was not | 
long before other persons discovered that they also possessed 
this extraordinary faculty of attracting spirit manifestations, 
and of getting into communication with the other world at 
will. But the Fox sisters were first in the field, and to them 
came a continuous stream of persons with well-filled pockets 
from all parts of America. There was also opposition, which 
sometimes took a very violent form. As early as November, 
S 


258 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


1850, an attack was made upon Margaretta Fox, who was 
staying at West Troy in the house of a Mr. Bouton. A rough 
mob surrounded the premises, stones were thrown at the 
windows, and shots fired, whilst both men and women uttered 
threats and imprecations against the “‘ unholy witch-woman 
within.”? At one of the séances Dr. Kane, a famous Arctic 
explorer was present, and he was so fascinated by the beauty 
of Margaretta Fox that he never rested until he had taken 
her away from her sordid and harmful surroundings, had her 
educated at Philadelphia, and finally, much to the annoyance 
of his relations, who loathed any connexion with the Fox 
family, made her his wife. 

Dr. Kane died soon after his marriage, but in the book 
published by his widow there are several references to his 
abhorrence of Spiritism. ‘‘ Do avoid spirits,” he urges, 
‘“T cannot bear to think of you as engaged in a course of 
wickedness and deception.”? For ten years Mrs. Kane did 
indeed abandon it; in fact in August, 1858, she was bap- 
tized as a Catholic at New York; but then,!°! owing perhaps 
to the pinch of poverty, she again took up work as a medium, 
and was received back with acclamations by the whole 
Spiritistic community. From that moment dates her steady 
deterioration, both physical and moral. 

Kate Fox, Mrs. Jencken as she had become, the wife of a 
London barrister, was the mother of a baby whom popular 
talk credited with mediumistic powers of the most extra- 
ordinary kind. The whole Spiritistic following prophesied a 
brilliant future for the poor child, of whom, however, there 
is nothing recorded save that he was sadly neglected by his 
miserable mother, who died of chronic alcoholism in June, 
1892. Mrs. Kane survived her sister for nine months, a 
pitiable and hopeless wreck, craving only for drink. The last 
few weeks of her life were spent in a derelict tenement house. 
‘* This wreck of womanhood has been a guest in palaces and 
courts. The powers of mind now imbecile were the wonder 
and the study of scientific men in America, Europe, and 
Australia... . The lips that utter little else now than 
profanity, once promulgated the doctrine of a new religion.” 
It would, indeed, be difficult to conceive anything more 
sordid and more miserable than this sad and shocking story 
of utter degradation. The collapse and moral corruption 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 259 


of the first apostles of modern Spiritism should surely prove 
a timely warning and a danger signal not to be mistaken.1 
In the earliest days of Spiritism the subject was investi- 
gated by men like Horace Greeley, William Lloyd Garrison, 
Robert Hare, professor of chemistry in the University of 
Pennsylvania, and John Worth Edmonds, a judge of the 
Supreme Court of New York State. Conspicuous among the 
spiritists we find Andrew Jackson Davis, whose work The 
Principles of Nature (1847), dictated by him in trance, 
contained theories of the universe closely resembling those 
of the Swedenborgians. From America the movement 
filtered through to Europe, and when in 1852 two mediums, 
Mrs. Haydon and Mrs. Roberts, came to London, not merely 
popular interest but the careful attention of the leading 
scientists of the day was attracted. Robert Owen, the 
Socialist, frankly accepted the Spiritistic explanation of the 
various phenomena, while Professor De Morgan, the mathe- 
matician, in his account of a sitting with Mrs. Haydon 
declared himself convinced that ‘“ somebody or some spirit 
was reading his thoughts.” In the spring of 1855 Daniel 
Dunglas Home (Hume)—Home was the son of the eleventh 
Lord Home and a chambermaid at the Queen’s Hotel, 
Southampton, but was brought up in America—who was 
then a young man of twenty-two, crossed to England from 
America. In 1856 Home was received into the Church at 
Rome by Father John Etheridge, S.J., and he then gave a 
promise to refrain from all exercise of his mediumistic powers, 
but in less than a year he had broken his pledge and was 
living as before. This famous medium is almost the only 
one who, as even Podmore admits, was never clearly con- 
victed of fraud. Sir David Brewster, the scientist, and Dr. 
J. J. Garth Wilkinson, a scholar of unblemished integrity and 
one of the leading homeopathic physicians, both avowed 
that they were incapable of explaining the phenomena they | 
had witnessed by any natural means. It was in 1855 that 
the first English periodical dealing exclusively with the 
subject, The Yorkshire Spiritual Telegraph, was pub- 
lished at Keighley, in Yorkshire. In 1864 the Davenport 
brothers visited England, and in 1876 Henry Slade. Amongst 
English mediums the Rev. William Stainton Moses became 
prominent in 1872,'°4 and about the same year Miss Florence 


260 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


Cook, so well known for the materializations of ‘‘ Katie King,” 
which were scrupulously investigated by the late Sir William 
Crookes. In 1878 and in 1874, however, the trickery of two 
mediums, Mrs. Bassett and Miss Showers, was definitely 
exposed.!°5 In 1876 and 1877 the sensitive “‘ Dr.”” Monck 
was at the height of his reputation, and both Dr. Alfred 
Russel Wallace, F.R.S., and the late Archdeacon Colley state 
that in various séances with him they witnessed on several 
occasions phenomena, including materialization, under rigid 
test conditions which admitted of no dispute as to their 
genuineness. It is true that in 1876 Monck had been in 
trouble and was sentenced to a term of imprisonment under 
the Vagrant Act. About the same time William Eglinton, 
who figures in Florence Marryat’s work There is No Death, 
appeared on the scenes and for a while loomed largely in the 
public eye. He became famous for his slate-writing per- 
formances as well as his materializations. He was, however, 
exposed by Archdeacon Colley, who during the discussion 
which had centred round a medium named Williams, detected 
in fraudulent practices during séances in Holland, wrote to 
The Medium and Daybreak to say: ‘It unfortunately fell 
to me to take muslin and false beard from Eglinton’s port- 
manteau. ... Some few days before this I had on two 
several occasions cut pieces from the drapery worn by, and 
clipped hair from the beard of, the other figure representing 
Abdullah. I have the pieces so cut off beard and muslin 
still. But note that when I took these things into my 
possession I and a medical gentleman (25 years a Spiritualist 
and well known to the old members of the Movement) found 
the pieces of muslin cut fit exactly into certain corresponding 
portions of the drapery thus taken.’’1°° 

The medium Slade, who was famous for slate-writing, was 
upon one occasion suddenly seized as he was about to put 
the slate under the table. His hands were held fast, and 
when the slate was snatched from him it was seen to be 
already covered with characters. Anna Rothe, who died in 
1901, a medium well known for her apports of flowers, 
suffered a term of imprisonment in Germany on a charge of 
fraud. When Baily, the Australian sensitive, visited Italy 
he refused to sit under the strict conditions which were 
arranged in answer to a challenge of his powers. Charles 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 261 


Eldred of Clowne, an adept at materialization, employed a 
chair skilfully made with a double seat, and in this recess 
were discovered the whole paraphernalia he employed in his 
performances. 

Mrs. Williams, an American medium, who for a long while 
was a centre of spiritistic attention at Paris, used to materi- 
alize a venerable doctor with a flowing beard who was some- 
times accompanied by a young girl dressed in white. At 
one circle Mons. Paul Leymaric gave a prearranged signal. 
He and a friend each laid hold of one of the apparitions; a 
third spectator seized Mrs. Williams’ assistant ; and a fourth 
turned on the lights. Mons. Leymaric was seen to be strug- 
gling with the medium, who had donned a grey wig and a 
long property beard ; the young girl was a mask from which 
were draped folds of fine white muslin and which she mani- 
pulated with her left hand. Miller, a Californian medium, 
was more than suspected of producing spirits from gauze 
and nun’s veiling.1°7 From one of the mediums of Mons. 
de Rochas, Valentine, there emanated mysterious lights, which 
moved quickly hither and thither during the séances. Colonel 
de Rochas, when this manifestation was once at its height, 
suddenly switched on a powerful electric torch and Valentine 
was seen to have slipped off his socks and to be waving in 
the air his feet, which were covered with some preparation 
of phosphorus.1°* As early as June, 1875, a photographer 
named Buguet was convicted of selling faked photographs 
of spirits by which he netted a very pretty sum.1°9 

It is notorious that in Spiritistic séances and circles 
charlatanry and swindling of every kind are rife ; that again 
and again mediums have been convicted of fraud; that not 
infrequently all kinds of properties, stuffed gloves, gauzes, 
yards of diaphanous muslin, invisible wires, hooks, beards, 
wigs, have been discovered ; that the use of luminous paint 
is very effective and far from uncommon; that a sliding | 
trap or panel may on occasion prove of inestimable service ; 
that we must allow for self-deception, delusions, suggestion, 
hypnotism even; but when all has been said, when we 
candidly acknowledge the imposture, the adroit legerdemain, 
the conjurer’s clever tricks, the significant mise en scéne, the 
verbal wit and quibbling, the deliberate and subtle cozenage 
contrived by shrewd minds and the full play of dramatic 


262 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


instinct and energy, nevertheless there yet remain numbers 
of instances when it has been repeatedly proven that acute 
and trained observers have witnessed phenomena which 
could not by any possibility whatsoever have been fraudu- 
lently produced ; that clear-headed, cold-hearted, suspicious, 
hard men of science with every sense keenly alert at that 
very moment have conversed with, inspected, nay, actually 
handled, materialized forms and figures no personation could 
have devised and manifested. 

The proceedings against Monck plainly showed that he 
had at any rate a firm belief in his own psychic powers, and 
although Eglinton was detected in a trick upon more than 
one occasion there is irrefutable evidence to prove that in 
other instances when he assisted at séances any normal 
mode of production of the phenomena seen there was. quite 
impossible. A large number of Miller’s manifestations also 
were genuine.4° The same may be said of very many 
mediums. This means, in fine, that although the manifesta- 
tions of almost any medium may in some cases have been 
artificially contrived, such phenomena are not on any account 
to be adjudged always fraudulent, and even if the charge 
of imposture could be brought home far more conclusively 
than has so far been possible as regards the majority of 
sensitives, yet it were a false inference indeed to deduce there- 
from that all phenomena are equally fraudulent and devised. 
It is only the recklessly illogical mind and the loose thinker 
who will in the face of absolutely conclusive proof of genuine 
manifestations continue to maintain that a certain quota. 
of quackery can invalidate the whole. Writers of the temper 
of Messrs. Edward Clodd, Joseph McCabe, J. M. Robertson 
must, of course, be expected to condemn Spiritism without 
knowing the facts or weighing the evidence as an obvious 
absurdity which calls for no serious refutation. But this, 
I think, matters little. The superstitious dogmatism of 
the materialist is gravely discredited nowadays. True, 
the sort of book he produces is widely circulated and 
very successful within certain limits. We should expect 
tenth-rate ideas which could only emanate from a lack 
of understanding, a total want of imagination, and 
no training in metaphysics or philosophy, to have a 
direct appeal to the immature intelligences, the un- 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 263 


educated vulgar and the blatant yet presumptuous ignor- 
ance, which alone are eager for this kind of outmoded 
fare. 

In France Spiritism was first proclaimed by a pamphlet 
of Guillard Table qui danse et Table qui répond. The way had 
been long paved owing to the interest which was generally 
taken in the doctrines of Emanuel Swedenborg. Balzac had 
published in 1835 his esoteric hybrid Séraphita (Séraphitus), 
a fanciful yet interesting work, in which there are many pages 
of theosophic philosophy. Perhaps he meant these seriously, 
but it is impossible to take them as other than flights of 
romance. In 1848 Cohognet more immediately heralded 
Guillard by publishing at Paris the first volume of his Arcanes 
de la vie future devoilées, which actually contains what 
purport to be communications from the dead. In 1858 
séances were being held at Bourges, Strasburg, and Paris, 
and a regular furore ensued. Nothing was talked of but the 
wonders of Spiritism, which, however, soon met an opponent, 
Count Agénor de Gasparin, a Swiss Protestant, who carefully 
investigated table-turning with a circle of his friends and 
came to the conclusion that the phenomena originated in 
some physical force of the human body. It must be admitted 
that his Des Tables Tournantes (Paris, 1854) is unconvincing 
and to some extent superficial, but more perhaps could hardly 
be expected from a pioneer in so tortuous an investigation. 
The Baron de Guldenstubbe, on the contrary, declared his 
firm belief in the reality of these phenomena and spirit 
intervention in general. His work La Réalité des Esprits 
(Paris, 1857) eloquently argued for his convictions, whilst 
Le Lwre des Esprits (Paris, 1858) by M. Rivail or Rival, 
better known under his pseudonym Allan Kardec, became a 
world-wide textbook to the whole subject. In these early 
days the most distinguished men were wont to meet in the 
rue des Martyrs at Paris for séances. Tiedmen Marthése, 
governor of Java; the academician Saint-René-Taillandier ; 
Sardou, with his son; Flammarion; all were constant 
visitors. The notorious Home was, it is said, expelled from 
France after a séance at the Tuileries, during which he had 
touched the arm of the Empress with his naked foot, pretend- 
ing that it was a caress from the tiny hands of a little child 
who was about fully to materialize. No one, I think, could 


264 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


be surprised to know that the famous Joris Karl Huysmans, 
an epicure in the byways of the occult, made many experi- 
ments in Spiritism, and séances were frequently held at 
No. 11 rue de Sévres where he lived. Extraordinary mani- 
festations took place, and upon one occasion at least the 
circle effected a materialization of General Boulanger, or an 
apparition of the General appeared to them. 

At the present time Spiritism is as widely spread in France 
as in England, if indeed not far more widely. Thus La 
Science de Ame is a new bi-monthly journal issued under 
the auspices of La Revue Spirite. It has articles on Magnetism 
and Radio-activity, the analysis of the soul, and vital 
radiations. In the number of La Revue Spirite, which 
commences the year 1925, Mons. Camille Flammarion prints 
a signed letter from Heliopolis, which describes a first 
experience of a séance, where the death of the writer’s father 
was predicted in six months and took place ten days after 
the allotted time. Elsewhere in the issue are particulars of 
the International Congress of Spiritism which was to be held 
at Paris in September, 1925, and would be open to all Federa- 
tions, Societies, and Groups everywhere. An immense con- 
course was expected. The President is Mr. George F. Berry, 
a well-known name in English Spiritistie circles, and the 
compliment of honorary membership is paid to Léon Denis, 
Gabriel Delanne, Sir William Barrett, and Ernest Bozzano. 

A glance at the pages of any Spiritistic journal in England 
will show almost endless activities in every direction. In one 
issue of the weekly Light (Saturday, 21 February, 1925) we 
have amongst other announcements nine “ Sunday’s Society 
Mectings ” in various districts of London, with addresses on 
Wednesdays and Thursdays. The following seems sufficiently 
startling and a close enough imitation: ‘“‘ St. Luke’s Church 
of the Spiritual Evangel of Jesus the Christ, Queen’s-road, 
Forest Hill, S.E.—Minister: Rev. J. W. Potter. February 
22nd, 6.30, Service, Holy Communion and Address. Healing 
Service, Wed., Feb. 25th, 7 p.m.” In the next column 
are details of ‘“‘ Rev. G. Vale Owen’s Lecture Tour.” The 
‘ London Spiritualist Alliance, Ltd.” has a list of meetings. 
There are discussion classes and demonstrations of clair- 
voyance, psychometry, and Mystic Pictures. Among ‘“ Books 
that will Help you” we find Talks with the Dead, Report on 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 265 


Spiritualism, The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ—(is 
this used at St. Luke’s Church of the Spiritual Evangel ?)— 
Spirit Identity, Spiritualism, and many more of similar 
import. There is a ‘ British College of Psychic Science’”’ 
where Mr. Horace Leaf, a medium of some repute, lectures 
on “The Psychology and Practice of Mediumship,”’ Mrs. 
Barker demonstrates Trance Mediumship, and Mrs. Travers 
Smith the Ouija-Board and Automatic Writing. There is a 
** London Spiritual Mission ”’ and a ‘“‘ Wimbledon Spiritualist 
Mission.”’ At Brighton ‘“‘ St. John’s Brotherhood Church ”’ 
provides “The Spiritual Evangel of Jesus the Christ,” 
“Minister, Brother John.’’ And all this is scarcely a tithe 
of the various announcements and advertisements. 

However grotesque, and indeed often puerile in its bombast 
and grandiloquence, such a mass of heterogeneous notices 
may seem we must remember that these people are in deadly 
earnest, and I doubt not but their meetings and assemblies 
are well attended by enthusiastic devotees. In a report of 
an address by the Rev. G. Vale Owen at the “ Spiritualist 
Community Services in the County Hall ’’ on Sunday evening, 
15 February, 1925, I read ‘‘all seats were filled long before 
the advertised hour for starting. The doors were closed and 
many for a time were denied admission. A little later they 
were allowed to enter and take up positions along the edges 
of the dais and other odd places about the hall.’’44?_ This, 
of course, was possibly some exceptional occasion, but 
there is no indication that such was the case. Mr. Vale Owen 
may be a very eloquent speaker and able to hold his audience 
spell-bound with the magic of his words. It must assuredly 
be his manner and not his matter, for his so-called revelations 
of the life beyond the grave, written under control and 
presumed to be directly derived from spirit agency, which 
appeared in The Weekly Dispatch are vapid, inept, idle, and 
insipid to the last degree. Such banal ramblings would 
provoke a smile, were it not for the pity that any person can 
be so self-deluded, and can apparently induce others to give 
credit to his silliness. 

There have been large numbers of mediums in recent 
years who owing to one cause or another attracted consider- 
able attention from time to time, and there are many well- 
known contemporary sensitives widely practising to-day. 


266 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


Mrs. Verrall and Mrs. Holland, who were believed to have 
obtained spirit messages from the late F. W. H. Myers, 
occupied the serious attention of the Society of Psychical 
Research" for a considerable period; Mrs. Piper is an 
automatic writer of no little repute; Mr. Vout Peters 
specializes in psychometry and clairvoyance; Mr. Vearn- 
combe and Mrs. Deane have recently enjoyed their full share 
of notoriety ;144 the Rev. Josie K. Stewart (Mrs. Y.), a lady 
hailing from the United States, has a gift for the production 
of “writing and drawings on cards held in her hand”: 
Mrs. Elizabeth A. Tomson, in spite of being detected of fraud 
at a Spiritistic ‘‘Church”’ in Brooklyn, still has devoted 
followers ; Franek Kluski, Stella C., and Ada Besinnet, are 
in the forefront of American mediums; whilst the famous 
Goligher circle at Belfast was carefully and patiently investi- 
gated for no less than three months by Dr. Fournier d’Albe, 
who has published the result of his experiences.15 The very 
cream of these occult manifestations is materialization, the 
most complex problem of all, which has been described as 
“the exercise of the power of using of the matter of the 
medium’s and the sitters’ bodies in the formation of physical 
structures on a principle totally unknown to ordinary life, 
although probably present there.”46 Recently (1922) Erto, 
the Italian medium, appears to have been the subject of 
careful experiments at the French Metaphysical Institute 
during a period of several months, those who assisted being 
pledged to silence until a decision had been reached. The 
particular phenomena produced by or in his presence were 
chiefly characterized by the radiation of an extraordinary 
light about his person. At the end of 1922 two papers 
appeared in La Revue Métapsychique on the part of Dr. 
Sanguinetti and Dr. William Mackenzie of Genoa indicating 
their assurance (1) that every scientific precaution had been 
taken, and (2) that the phenomena were genuine. However, 
the experiments seem to have continued and later there 
appeared in Le Matin an enthusiastic contribution by 
Dr. Stephen Chauvet, which caused Dr. Gustave Geley, 
Director of the Metaphysical Institute, to come forward in 
confirmation of the testimony. It is only fair to add that im- 
mediately afterwards Dr. Geley to a certain extent retracted 
his statement, as he suggested that the psychic lights could be 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 267 


produced with ferro-cerium, and it was thought that traces 
of this substance could be found on Erto’s clothes. The 
medium protested his innocence of any deception, and offers 
himself for further experiments. A writer in Psychica is 
inclined to believe that the phenomena were genuine, but 
that later some fraud may have been practised owing to 
waning power. This is possibly the case, for that the radia- 
tions were at first supernormal cannot, I think, be gainsaid 
in view of the high testimony adduced. For this phenomenon 
Mr. Cecil Hush and Mr. Craddock have sat repeatedly ;_ of 
the extraordinary manifestations of the late Kusapia Palladino 
there can be no reasonable doubt at all; the materializations 
of Mlle ‘‘ Eva Carrére,’’!!” although on several occasions not 
altogether successful, are at other times supported by the 
strongest evidence ; Nino Pecoraro, who is described as ‘‘a 
remarkably muscular young Neapolitan,” is famous for “‘ ecto- 
plasmic effects’; and Stanislava P., Willy S., the Countess 
Castelvicz, and very many more psychics possess these 
supernormal powers, although, as we might expect, they have 
to be used with the utmost caution and often prove very 
exhausting to the subject. After all, it must be remembered 
that probably under certain conditions materialization cannot 
take place, whilst under favourable conditions it can be 
completely effected. For an exhaustive and authoritative 
discussion of the whole matter the Baron Von Schrenck- 
Notzing’s Phenomena of Materialization (Kegan Paul, 1923), 
should be consulted. The 225 photographic reproductions 
are of the utmost importance, whilst the investigations were 
carried on under conditions of such pitiless severity to 
eliminate any hypothesis of fraud that the mediums cannot 
but have been subjected to the intensest physical and moral 
strain. 

Among recent psychic phenomena very general attention 
has been attracted by what is known as ‘‘ The Oscar Wilde 
Script,’ which was widely discussed in 1923-24. Briefly, this 
purports to be a number of communications which were 
delivered by the spirit of the late Oscar Wilde at the rate 
of 1020 words in an hour by means of automatic writing 
through the mediumship of Mrs. Travers Smith (Mrs. Hester 
M. Dowden)!!® and a certain Mr. V. True, there were 
published in The Sunday Express pages which had a super- 


268 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


ficial resemblance to the more flashy characteristies of Wilde’s 
flamboyant style, but it seemed as if the wit and point had 
vanished, leaving only a somewhat heavy and imitative 
prose; one had a sense of damp fireworks, and personally 
I do not for a moment accept this script as being inspired 
or dictated by Wilde. I hasten to add that I do not suggest 
there was any conscious fraud or trickery on the part of those 
concerned ; it is quite probable that these psychic messages 
were conveyed by some intelligence of no very high standing, 
and the result in fine is not of any value. It is said that a 
three act play is being or has been communicated through 
the ouija-board from what purports to be Wilde. This I have 
not read, and therefore I am not in a position to pronounce 
upon it. 

Spiritism is upheld by many distinguished names. Sir 
Oliver Lodge, F.R.S., has battled on its behalf, as also have” 
Sir William Barrett, F.R.S., and Sir William Crookes, F.R.S., 
Professors Charles Richet, Janet, Bernheim, Lombroso, and 
Flammarion lend it the weight of their authority, whilst 
Sir Conan Doyle has poured forth his benedictions upon 
occultism of every kind.1!® He has even presided over the 
opening of a most attractive bookshop in Victoria Street, 
Westminster, where Spiritistic publications are sold. 

How then are we to regard this mighty movement at 
which it were folly to sneer, which it is impossible to ignore ? 
The Catholic Church does neither. But none the less she 
condemns it utterly and entirely. Not because she dis- 
believes in it, but because she believes in it so thoroughly, 
because she knows what is the real nature of the moving 
forces, however skilfully they may disguise themselves, 
however quick and subtle their shifts and turns, the intelli- 
gences which inform and direct the whole. It is a painful 
subject since (I reiterate) many good people, no doubt many 
thoughtful seekers after truth, have been fascinated and 
swept along by Spiritism. They are as yet conscious of neither 
physical nor moral harm, and, it may be, they have been 
playing with the fire for years. Nay more, Spiritism has been 
a sweet solace to many in most poignant hours of bitter 
sorrow and loss; wherefore it is hallowed in their eyes by 
tenderest memories. They are woefully deceived. Hard 
as it may seem, we must get down to the bed-rock of fact. 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 269 


Spiritism has been specifically condemned on no less than 
four occasions by the Holy Office,1?° whose decree, 30 March, 
1898, utterly forbids all Spiritistic practices although inter- 
course with demons be strictly excluded, and communication 
sought with good spirits only. Modern Spiritism is merely 
Witcheraft revived. The Second Plenary Council of Balti- 
more (1866), whilst making ample allowance for prestidigitation 
and trickery of every kind, warns the faithful against lending 
any support whatsoever to Spiritism and forbids them to 
attend séances even out of idle curiosity, for some, at least, 
of the manifestations must necessarily be ascribed to Satanic 
intervention since in no other manner can they be understood 
or explained. 


NOTES TO CHAPTER VI 


1. de Rougé, Htude sur une stéle Egyptienne, Paris, 1858: E. A. W. 
Budge, Hgyptian Magic, VII. 

2 Rekh Khet, ‘‘ knower of things.”’ 

3 Euripides, Bacchew: passim; Ovid, Metamorphoses. III. 513, sqq. ; 
Apollodorus, III. v. 2.; Hyginus, Fabule, 184; Nonnus, Dionysiaca (Bassa- 
rica), XIV, 46. 

4 Sophocles, Ajax ; Pindar, Nemea, VII, 25; Ovid, Metamorphoses, XIII, 
1-398. 

5 Pausanias, III, xvi, 6. 

6 Valerius Maximus, I, 11, 5. Lacinium was a promontory on the east 
coast of Bruttium, a few miles south of Croton, and forming the western 
boundary of the Tarentine gulf. The remains of the temple of Juno Lacinia 
are still extant, and have given the modern name to the promontory, Capo 
delle Colonne or Capo di Nao (vaés). 

7 Xenophon, Memorabilia. 11.1.5; Demosthenes, XCIII, 24 ; Dinarchus, 
CI, 41; Plutarch, Lucullus, IV. 

8 Euripides, Orestes, 1. 854, and 1. 79. 

9 Cf. warts. 

10 Cf. Vergil Aneid. IV. 471-3: 

Agamemnonius scenis agitatus Orestes 
armatam facibus matrem et serpentibus atris 
cum fugit, ultricesque sedent in limine Dire. 


(Or as the Atridan matricide 
Runs frenzied o’er the scene, 

What time with snakes and torches plied 
He flees the murdered queen, 

While at the threshold of the gate 

The sister-fiends expectant wait.) 


11 Plautus, Amphitruo, II. 2. 145. Nam hee quidem edepol lauarum 


plenast. 
12 Quid esset illi morbi, dixeras ? Narra, senex. 
Num laruatus, aut cerritus ? fac sciam. 
Menechmei. V. 1, 2. Apuleuis has laruans = a madman: “ hunc [pul- 


cherrimam Mercurii imaginem] denique qui laruam putat, ipse est laruans.”’ 
(Laruatus is a poorer reading in this passage.) Cerritus. a rare word, is 
contracted from cerebritus (cerebrum), and not connected with Ceres, as was 
formerly suggested. Cf. Horace, Sermonum, II, ili. 278. 


270 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


Per PLL LL ey cks 

S647 15 saq. 

15 56, Nauck. 

16 ramixwpl év rider Ppvyav TbuTava, 
“Péas Te wenrpos ud O' ebpjuara. 

17 Circa 185-135 B.c. 

18 Professor Leuba, The Psychology of Religious Mysticism Kegan Paul, 
London, 1925, p. 11 sqq. has some very important references to the worship 
of Dionysus. 

19 ob yap évOeos, & Kovpa, 
eir’ é€x Ilavds et0’‘Exdras 
Hh ceuvav KopuBarvrwy 
potras, 7) warpos dpelas, 
30 défacd mov 
} Ilavods dpyas 7 rivds Oe@y pondéiv. 


21 4X # Kpovlov ILavds rpomepg 
pdotiye Poe ; 

22 Pythagoras prescribes music for mental disorders, Eunapius Ujita 
philosophorum, 67; and Celius Aurelianus by his references shows that this 
was a common remedy in such cases, De Morbis Chronicis (Tardarum 
Passionum) VI. Origen, Aduersus Celsum, III, x, and Martianus Capella 
De Nuptiis Philologie et Mercurii IX, 925, have similar allusions. 

#3] Kings xvi. 14 (A.V. 1 Samuel xvi. 14): ‘‘ Exagitabat eum [Saul] 
spiritus nequam a Domino.”’ 

24 Antiquitates Iud., VI, viii, 2; ii, 2. 

25 La Mystique Divine, Ribet, II, ix, 4, it is true, speaks of ‘‘ l’obsession 
intérieure,’’ but he makes the above distinction, and further says: ‘* L’obses- 
sion purement intérieure ne différe des tentations ordinaires que par la 
véhémence et la durée.” | 

76 Mult sunt tentationes eius, et die noctuque uarie dsemonum insidiz 
. . . Quoties illi nude mulieres cubanti, quoties esurienti largissime appa- 
ruere dapes ? Uita S. Hilarionis. VII. Migne. vol. XXIII. col. 32. 

*7 Sustinebat miser diabolus uel mulieris formam noctu induere, femineque 
gestus imitari, Antonium ut deciperet. §. Athanasius, Uita S. Antonii, V. 
Migne. vol. XXVI. col. 847. 

28 Feast (duplex maius apud Minores), 22 February. 

29 It may perhaps not be amiss to point out that S. Margaret before her 
conversion was by no means the woman of scandalous life so many biographers 
have painted her. 

8° Sectando per cellam orantis et flentis, cantauit [diabolus] turpissimas 
cantationes, et Christi famulam lacrymantem et se Domino commendantem 
procaciter inuocabat ad cantum ...; tentantem precibus et lacrymis 
repulit ac eiecit. Bollandists, 22 February. Vol. VI. 

*1 Ceterum consilium est semper de talibus inuasionibus suspicionem 
habere, non enim negandum maiorem earum partem esse aut fictiones, aut 
imaginationes, aut infirmitates, presertim in mulieribus. Praxis confes- 
sartorum, n. 120. 

32 Sepissime, que putantur dzemonis obsessiones, non sunt nisi morbi 
naturales, aut Naturales imaginationes, uel etiam inchoata aut perfecta 
amentia. Quare caute omnino procedendum, usquedum per specialissima 
signa de obsessione constet. Theologia mystica, I. n. 228. 

33 Biblisches Realworterbuch, Leipsig, 1833. 

34 This word is found nowhere else in the New Testament, and wherever 
it is used in the LXX, it is invariably of the sayings of lying prophets, or 
those who practised arts forbidden by the Jewish Law. Thus of the witch 
of Endor (1 Kings (1 Samuel) xxviii. 8) udvrevoar 54 wo ev TH eyyaorpronvdy, 
and (Ezechiel xiii. 6) BXéroures Wevd4, pavTevduevor wdraca. 

3° Ordinandi, filii charissimi, in officium Exorcistarum, debitis noscere 
quid suscipitis. Exorcistam etenim oportet abiicere demones; et dicere 
populo, ut, qui non communicat, det locum ; et aquam in ministerio fundere. 
Accipitis itaque potestatem imponendi manum super energumenos, et per 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 271 


impositionem manuum vestrarum, gratia spiritus sancti, et uerbis exorcismi 
pelluntur spiritus immundi a corporibus obsessis. Studete igitur, ut, sicut 
a corporibus aliorum dzmones expellitis, ita a mentibus, et corporibus 
uestris omnem immunditiam, et nequitiam eiiciatis; ne illis succumbatis, 
quos ab aliis, uestro ministerio, effugatis. Discite per officium uestrum 
uitiis imperare; ne in moribus uestris aliquid sui iuris inimicus ualeat 
uindicare. Tunc etenim recte in aliis demonibus imperabitis, cum prius in 
uobis eorum multimodam nequitiam superatis. Quod nobis Dominus agere 
concedat per Spiritum suum sanctum. 

36 Accipite, et commendate memoriz, et habete potestatem imponendi 
manus super energumenos, siue baptizatos, siue catechumenos. 

37 Deum Patrem omnipotentem, fratres charissimi, supplices deprecamur, 
ut hos famulos suos bene % dicere dignetur in officium Exorcistarum ; ut 
sint spirituales imperatores, ad abiiciendos dzemones de corporibus obsessis, 
cum omni nequitia eorum multiformi. Per unigenitum Filium suum Dominum 
nostrum Jesum Christum, qui cum eo uiuit et regnat in unitate Spiritus 
sancti Deus, per omnia secula seculorum. R. Amen. 

38 Domine sancte, Pater omnipotens, eterne Deus, bene »&* dicere dignare 
hos famulos tuos in officium Exorcistarum ; ut per impositionem manuum, 
et oris officium, potestatem, et imperium habeant spiritus immundos coer- 
cendi: ut probabiles sint medici Ecclesia tue, gratia curationum uirtuteque 
ccelesti confirmati. Per Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum Filium tuum, 
qui tecum uiuit, et regnat in unitate Spiritus sancti Deus, per omnia sxcula 
seculorum. R. Amen. Post hec, suggerente Archidiacono, redeunt ad loca sua. 

39 Sulpitius Severus (d. 420-5) in his Dialogues, III (II), 6; (Migne, Patres 
Latini, XX, 215) tells us that 8. Martin of Tours was wont to cast out demons by 
prayer alone without the imposition of hands or the use of the formule recom- 
mended to the clergy. Similar instances occur in the lives of the Saints. 

40 Translated from the Rituale Romanum. There are several forms extant, 
some authorized, but more, perhaps, unauthorized. There is an authorized 
form in the Greek Huchologion. It commences with the Trisagion, and 
Psalms, Domine exaudi (cxlii.), Dominus regit me (xxii.), Dominus illu- 
minatio mea (xxvi.), Esurgat Deus (lxvii.), Miserere (lvi.), Domine ne 
in furore (vi.), Domine exaudi orationem (ci.). Then follows the Consolatory 
Canon, with a long Hymn addressed to Our Lord, Our Lady, and All Saints. 
Next the priest anoints the patient, saying a prayer over him, and so the 
office closes. | 

41 Tt is also given in the Horw Diurne O.P., Rome, 1903, where an indul- 
gence of 300 days is attached, plenary once a month. 

42 Ab insidiis diaboli, libera nos Domine; Ut Ecclesiam tuam secura tibi 
facias libertate seruire, te rogamus, audi nos; Ut inimicos sancte Ecclesiz 
humiliare digneris, te rogamus, audi nos. Et aspergatur locus aqua benedicta. 

48 Holy water, the commonest of the sacramentals, is a mixture of exorcised 
salt and exorcised water. 

44 Of Eastern origin. It should be remembered that the Baptism of Christ 
in Jordan is commemorated on the Epiphany. In the present Breviary 
office in Nocturn I the first response for the day, the Octave, and the Sunday 
within the Octave deal with the Baptism, as does the second response. The 
antiphon to the Benedictus and the Magnificat antiphon at Second Vespers 
also make mention of the same mystery. In Rome the Latin rite of the 
Blessing of the Waters is pontificated by a Cardinal at S. Andrea della Valle 
on 5 January, about 3.30 p.m., at the church of the Stimmate of 8. Francesco : 
at 9.30 a.m. on the Feast itself. On the Vigil the Oriental rite is performed 
at the Greek church of 8S. Atanasio, beginning about 3.30 a.m. 

45 See Wilson, Western Africa ; and the article ‘‘ Possession diabolique ”’ 
by Waffelaert in the Dictionnaire apologétique de la foi catholique, Paris, 1889. 
The opinion of the Cistercian Dom Robert de la Trappe (Dr. Pierre-Jean- 
Corneille Debreyne), who, whilst acknowledging that the demoniac possessions 
as detailed in the New Testament are de fide, supposes that all other cases 
are to be attributed to fraud or disease, must be severely censured as regret- 
tably rash and even culpable. Essai sur la théologie morale, IV. p. 356. 


272 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


46 §. Justin Martyr, Apologia, VI; Dialogues, XXX, LXXXV: Minutius 
Felix, Octavius, XX VII; Origen, Contra Celsum, I, 25; VII, 4,67: Tertullian, 
Apologia, XXII, XXIII. 

47 Paulinus, Uita Ambrosi, 28, 43. 

48 §. Gregory of Nyssa, De Uita Ephraem 

49 Upon this passage Servatius Galle (1627-1709), a Dutch minister at 
Haarlem, in his edition of Lactantius, 1660, writes the most absurd note 
I have ever met with in any commentator. 

50 Published between 304-313. De Labriolle, Histoire de la Lnittérature 
Latine Chrétienne, p. 272. 

51 A very full and scholarly monograph upon this subject may be recom- 
mended: La Réalité des Apparitions Démoniaques, by Dom Bernard-Marie 
Maréchaux, Olivetan, 0.S.B., Paris, Téqui, 1899. 

52 Tt is true that on one occasion S. Maurus, who was with S. Benedict, 
beheld an apparition, and S. Benedict once enabled a monk to see a similar 
vision. 

53 One of Sodoma’s exquisite frescoes at Monte Oliveto (Siena) depicts 
an exorcism by S. Benedict. 

54 The letters have been thus translated by Dom Benedict McLaughlin 
of Ampleforth : 

Holy Cross be thou my light, 
Put the evil one to flight. 
Behind me Satan speedily, 
Whisper not vain things to me. 
You can give but evil, then 
Keep it for yourself. Amen. 

55 All English Benedictine priests hold the special faculty to use this 
(bestowed 23 February, 1915), and it has also been granted to many others, 
religious and seculars. 

56 Omnis virtus aduersarii, omnis exercitus diaboli, et omnis incursus, 
omnis phantasma Satane, eradicare et effugare ab his numismatibus ... 

57 Domine Iesu Christe... per hanc tuam sanctissimam passionem 
humiliter exoro ; ut omnes diabolicas insidias et fraudes expellas ab eo, qui 
nomen sanctum tuum, his litteris ac characteribus a te designatis, deuote 
inuocauerit, et eum ad salutis portum perducere digneris. Qui uiuis et 
regnas ... 

58 The Rituale Romanum has ‘‘ Benedictio Infirmorum cum Ligno 8S. 
Crucis, D.N.J.C. sew Signum S8. Mauri Abbatis.’’ This is a blessing of the 
sick with a Relic of the Holy Cross and the invocation of 8S. Benedict and 
S. Maurus. 

59 The Uita S. Mauri (Mabillon, Acta S.S. O. S.B., I, 274) is ascribed to 
a companion, the monk Faustus of Monte Cassino. Pére Delehaye, in his 
unfortunate and temerarious work Légendes Hagiographiques (translation. 
London, 1907), indecorously attacks this and treats S. Maurus with scant 
respect. A worthy defence was made by Adlhoch, Stud. u. Mittheil., 1903, 3; 
1906, 185. According to Peter the Deacon he also wrote a Cantus ad B. 
Maurum. 

60 Blessed Victor III. Dialogues, I, 2. 

61 Abbé Lebeuf. Histoire du diocése de Paris, V. 129 sqq. 

62 Portraits of him are preserved at Rome and Valladolid. 

63 A hearty believer in witchcraft. He had sent at least one witch to the 
gallows, and another to prison. 

64 Apparently the work of Darrel himself, but in the Huth catalogue 
(V, 1643) ascribed to James Bamford. 

65 Darrel in his Detection of that sinnful, shamful, lying, and ridiculous 
discours of Samuel Harshnet, 1600, writes: ‘‘ There is no doubt but that 
S.H. stand for Samuell Harsnet, chapline to the Bishop of London, but 
whither he alone, or his lord and hee, have discovered this counterfeyting 
and cosonage there is the question. Some think the booke to be the Bishop’s 
owne doing : and many thinke it to be the joynt work of them both.”’ 

66 On 10 November, 1629, he was sworn of the Privy Council. 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 273 


*” Whence Shakespeare derived the names of various evil spirits whom 
Edgar mentions in King Lear. 

** I do not conceive that at the present time many, if any, Bishops of the 
Church of England would license exorcism. Certainly the more scientifically 
minded and modernistic Lords Spiritual of the Anglican bench have rid 
themselves of such an idle superstition. How they would explain Our Blessed 
Lord’s words and actions I do not pretend to know, but I suppose that 
according to their wider knowledge Christ—sit wenia uerbis—was mistaken 
in this as in other particulars. 

%° Colloquia Mensalia, passimy 

7 Tt is difficult to see how the teachings of such a Protestant leader as 
Gaspar von Schwenckfeld (1489-90—1561) are anything save tantamount 
to mere personal morality and a vague individual pietism. A critical edition 
of his numerous works is in course of publication under the editorship of 
Basa Schlutter, and Johnson : Corpus Schwenckfeldianorum, I, Leipzig, 

07. 

71 Parker’s Correspondence, Parker Society, Cambridge, 1856, pp. 465-6. 

™ By vomiting pins and straws they had made many believe that they 
were bewitched, but the tricks were soon found out and they were compelled 
to public penance at S. Paul’s. There is a black letter pamphlet The discloysing 
of a late counterfeyted possession by the devyl in two maydens within the Citie 
of London [1574], which describes this case. See also Holinshed, Chronicles 
(ed. London, 1808), IV, 325, and Stow Annales, London, 1631, p. 678. But 
the fact that there are malingerers does not mean there are none sick. 

78 Marie Glover’s late woefull case.... A defence of the truthe against 
‘D. J. his scandalous Impugnations, British Museum, Sloane MSS., 831. 
Sinclar, Satan’s Invisible World Discovered, Edinburgh, 1685, Relation XII 
quotes an account of Mary Glover from Lewis Hughes’ Certaine Grievances 
(1641-2); and hence Burton, The Kingdom of Darkness, and Hutchinson, 
Historical Essay concerning Witchcraft, both assign a wrong date (1642) to 
the occurrence. 

74 Enlarged edition, 1720. 

78 The Other World, London, 18765, I, pp. 59-69. The incident is narrated 
by Fortescue Hitchins, The H istory of Cornwall, Helston, 1824, IT, pp. 548-51 ; 
and also in fuller detail by the Rev. R. 8. Hawker, Footprints of Former Men 
in Far Cornwall, London, 1870, who quotes from Ruddle’s MS. Diary. 

76 Six miles north of §. Columb and three miles due south from Padstow. 

7 A full and documented account of these strange happenings may be 
found in Lucifer, or the True Story of the Famous Diabolic Possession in Alsace, 
London, 1922, with the Imprimatur of the Bishop of Brentwood. Compiled 
from original documents by the abbé Paul Sutter and translated by the 
Rev. Theophilus Borer. 

78 Jesus . . . comminatus est spiritui immundo, dicens illi: Surde et 
mute spiritus, Ego precipio tibi, exi ab eo: et amplius ne introcas in eum. 
Huan. sec. Marcum. IX. 25. 

1726-1755. This great Saint was then Venerable; he was beatified by 
Leo XIII, 29 J. anuary, 1893, and canonized by Pius X, 11 December, 1903. 
His feast is kept on 16 October. 

0 Peter Paul Stumpf succeeded Andreas Riss as Bishop of Strasburg, 
1887-1890. 

81 Une Possédée Contemporaine (1834-1914). Héléne Poirier de Coullons ‘ 
(Lotret). Paris, Téqui, 1924. An ample study, profusely documented, of 
517 pages, edited by M. le Chanoine Champault of the diocese of Orleans. 

*2 A partir de cette époque, la vie d’Héléne s’écoulera au milieu de souf- 
frances physiques et morales si grandes, que dans sa bouche les plaintes de 
Job ne seraient point déplacées. 

88 Mr. G. R. 8. Mead, however, in this connexion not impertinently recalls 
the “ controlling ” of members of the Shaker communities by what purported 
to be spirits of North American Indians. This was prior to 1848. 

** Ses souffrances physiques et morales, commencées le 25 mars, 1850, se 
poursuivirent jusqu’a sa mort, 8 janvier, 1914, soit pendant soixante-quatre ans. 


T 


274 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


Toutefois les vexations diaboliques cessérent vers la fin de 1897. Ces vexa- 
tions durérent donc prés de quarante-sept années, dont six de possession. 

85 Du 25 mars, 1850, au courant de mars, 1868, Héléne fut seulement obsédée. 
Cette obsession dura donc 18 années. Au bout de ce temps et pendant 13 mois 
elle fut obsédée et possédée tout ensemble. 

De Vobsession et de la possession elle fut complétement délivrée par les 
exorcismes officiels, A Orléans, le 19 avril, 1869. 

Suivirent quatre mois de tranquillité, jusqu’au recommencement volon- 
taire et généreux de ses peines. 

A la fin d’aofit, 1869, elle accepta de la main de Notre Seigneur les tourments 
d’une nouvelle obsession et possession afin d’obtenir la conversion du célébre 
général Ducrot. La conversion obtenue, elle fut délivrée a Lourdes le 
3 septembre, 1875, par les priéres des 15,000 pélerins qui s’y trouvaient réunis. 
Obsession et possession renouvelées avaient duré cing ans. 

Plus jamais, pendant les quarante ans qu’elle avait encore a vivre, elle 
ne fut possédée ; mais elle continua a étre obsédée tantdt plus, tantdt moins. 
Les souffrances de toutes sortes, qu’elle endura alors, eurent pour but d’obtenir 
le salut et le triomphe du clergé. 

Quant aux raisons et au but des premiéres persécutions diaboliques qu’elle 
subit pendant dix-neuf ans et dont elle fut délivrée par les exorcismes officiels, 
ils sont restés inconnus. Une Possédée Contemporaine (1834-1914), pp. 171-2. 

86 A fragment of the soutane of this most holy Pontiff was taken to Hélene 
and during one of her fits placed upon her forehead. At the contact she 
cried out: ‘‘ Le Pape est un saint, oui un grand saint.’’ (The Pope is a Saint, 
truly a great Saint !) 

87 Pour y étre admis, il faut apporter une ou plusiers hosties consacrées, 
‘es remettre au démon qui, sous forme corporelle ou visible, préside l’assemblée. 
li faut les profaner d’une maniére horrible, adorer le démon lui-méme et 
commettre avec lui et les autres sociétaires les actes d’impudicité les plus 
révoltants. Trois villes: Paris, Rome, et Tours sont les siéges de cette 
société infernale. 

88 La seconde possession fut plus terrible quela premiére. 1¢: Par la durée ; 
la premiére fut de treize mois, la seconde de cing ans. 2°: La premiere fut 
a‘loucie par de nombreuses consolations surnaturelles ; la seconde trés peu. 
3°: Les dévices abondérent dans la premiére; dans la seconde les avanies 
morales l’emportérent de beaucoup sur les avanies physiques. Une Possédée 
Contemporaine (1834-1914), p. 405. 

89 Spirit Possession, Henry M. Hugunin, published in Sycamore, IIl., 
U.S.A. 

99 One should note the implication that science and faith are opposed. 
Dr. Wilfred T. Grenfell pointedly comments: ‘‘ This question seems inept. 
To me the terms are not in antithesis, i.e. logical v. spiritual. 

91 Edited by Huntly Carter. Fisher Unwin, 1920. 

92 Whose contribution, From Non-Religion to Religion, opens with the 
following inepitude: ‘‘I think that the renewal of Spiritualism is mainly 
due to a real increase in our knowledge of psychical facts.” This phrase 
could only have been written by one wholly ignorant of mystical theology, 
and, it would seem, of historical Christianity. 

%3 Spiritualism, Its Present-Day Meaning, p. 258. 

94 Idem, p. 269. 

95 Idem, pp. 270-1. 

96 Idem, p. 245. 

97 Idem, p. 206. 

98 Idem, pp. 206-7. 

99 Idem, p. 205. The words are those of Father Bernard Vaughan. 

100 ** Seventeen Elementary Facts concerning Spiritualism.’’ Jzght, 21 
February, 1925. Here we also have the frank avowal : ‘‘ Modern Spiritualism 
is only a revival of phenomena and experiences that were well known in 
ancient times.’’ It should be remarked that similar phenomena, believed to 
be a genuine case of haunting, occurred at the house of Mr. Samuel Wesley, 
at Epworth, Lincolnshire, in 1716, and attracted universal attention. It is 


DIABOLIC POSSESSION 275 


said that the knockings at the house of Parsons, Cock Lane, West Smithfield, 
in 1760, were proved to be fraud, but I do not know that the case has ever 
been candidly studied. 

101 She took part in a séance on 25 October, 1860, but this seems to have 
been exceptional. 

102 Washington Daily Star, 7 March, 1893, quoted in The Medium and the 
Daybreak, 7 April, 1893. 

103 In the ‘‘ educational’’ primers prepared by certain spiritists for use by 
children the story of the Fox Sisters is told in glowing colours to a point, 
but the history of their downfall is suppressed. 

104 He died at Bedford, 5 September, 1892. His control was the spirit 
Imperator, who claimed to be the prophet Malachias. For a very full bio- 
graphy see Arthur Lillie’s Modern Mystics and Modern Magic. London. 
1894. 

106 For Mrs. Bassett see The Medium, 11 April and 18 April, 1873, pp. 174 
and 182; for Miss Showers, The Medium, 8 May and 22 May, pp. 294 and 
326. 

106 Medium and Daybreak, 15 November, 1878, p. 730. 

107 [/ Eclair, 6 April, 1909. 

108 Dr. Grasset, L’Occultisme, pp. 56, sqq. ; p. 424. 

109 Procés des Spirites, 8vo. Paris. 1875. 

110 La Revue Spirite and L’ Echo du Mentalisme, Nov., 1908. 

111 Who apparently belioves that Spiritism is authorized by the Scriptures, 
and that many of the prophets, nay, even Our Divine Lord Himself, were 
but mediums. 

12 Tight. Saturday, 21 February, 1925, p. 89. 

113 Organized in 1882 for the scientific examination of ‘‘ debatable phenom- 
ena.” 

114 See the Report presented 11 May, 1922, and published by The Magic 
Circle, Anderton’s Hotel, Fleet Street. 

15 The Goligher Circle, May to August, 1921. Experiences of E. E. Fournier 
d’Albe, p.sc. London, Watkins, 1922. 

116 The Classification of Psychic Phenomena, by W. Loftus Hare. The 
Occult Review, July, 1924, p. 38. 

117 Her real name appears to be Marthe Béraud. Professor Richet is 
satisfied that in his experiments with this medium at the Villa Carmen (Algiers) 
in 1905 genuine materialization was effected. 

118 Who, as noted above, specializes in the Ouija-Board and Automatic 
Writing. 

119 Ho has written such works as The New Revelation, and compiled The 
Spiritualists’ Reader, ‘‘ A Collection of Spirit Messages from many sources, 
specially prepared for Short Readings.”’ 

120 In all of whose documents the distinction is clearly drawn between 
lezitimate scientific investigation and superstitious abuses. 


CHAPTER VII 
Tue Wrircu IN Dramatic LITERATURE 


Tur English theatre, in common with every other form 
of the world’s drama, had a religious, or even more exactly 
a liturgical, origin. At the Norman Conquest as the 
English monasteries began to be filled with cultured French 
scholars there is evidence that Latin dialogues, the legends 
of saints and martyrs, something after the fashion of 
Hrotsvitha’s comedies, which we do not imagine to have been 
a unique phenomenon, found their way here also, and from 
recitation to the representation of these was an easy and 
indeed inevitable step. For it is almost impossible to 
declaim without appropriate action. From the very heart 
of the liturgy itself arose the Mystery Play. 

The method of performing these early English guild plays 
has been frequently and exactly described, and I would only 
draw attention to one feature of the movable scaffold which 
passed from station to station, that is the dark cavern at 
the side of the last of the three sedes, Hell-mouth. No pains 
were spared to make this as horrible and realistic as might 
be. Demons with hideous heads issued from it, whilst ever and 
anon lurid flames burst forth and dismal cries were heard. 
Thus the Digby S. Mary Magdalen play has the stage- 
direction: ‘‘a stage, and Helle ondyrneth that stage.” At 
Coventry the Cappers had a “ hell-mouth ” for the Harrowing 
of Hell, and the Weavers another for Doomsday. This was 
provided with fire, a windlass, and a barrel for the earth- 
quake. In the stage-directions to Jordan’s Cornish Creation 
of the World Lucifer descends to hell ‘‘ apareled fowle w™ 
fyre about hem ”’ and the place is filled with ‘‘ every degre of 
devylls of lether and spirytis on cordis.” Among the 
‘ establies ” required for the Rouen play of 1474 was “ Enfer 
fait en maniere d’une grande gueulle se cloant et ouvrant 
quant besoing en est.’ The last stage-direction of the 

276 


WITCH IN DRAMATIC LITERATURE 277 


Sponsus, a liturgical play from Limoges,—assigned by M. M. 
W. Cloetta and G. Paris to the earlier half of the twelfth 
century—which deals with the Wise and Foolish Virgins runs 
as follows: “‘ Modo accipiant eas [| fatuas uirgines] demones et 
precipitentur in infernum.” 

The Devil himself is one of the most prominent characters 
in the Mystery, the villain of the piece. So the York cycle 
commences with The Creation and the Fall of Lucifer. Whilst 
the Angels are singing ‘‘ Holy, Holy, Holy” before the 
throne of God, Satan appears exulting in his pride to be cast 
down speedily into hell whence he howls his complaint 
beginning ‘‘ Owte, owte! harrowe!’’ There is a curious 
incident in the episode of the Dream of Pilate’s wife. Whilst 
she sleeps Satan whispers in her ear the vision which moves 
her to try to stay the condemnation of Jesus whereby 
mankind is to be redeemed. The last play of the York cycle 
is the Day of Judgement. 

In like manner the Towneley cycle opens with The Creation, 
and presently we have the stage-direction hic deus recedit 
a suo solio & lucifer sedebit in eodem solio. The scene soon 
shifts to hell when we hear the demons reproaching Lucifer 
for his pride. After the creation of Adam and Eve follows 
Lucifer’s lament. In the long episode of Doomsday a number 
of demons appear and are kept inordinately busy. 

The Devil was represented as black, with goat’s horns, 
ass’s ears,.cloven hoofs, and an immense phallus. He is, in 
fact, the Satyr of the old Dionysiac processions, a nature- 
spirit, the essence of joyous freedom and unrestrained delight, 
shameless if you will, for the old Greek knew not shame. 
He is the figure who danced light-heartedly across the 
Aristophanaic stage, stark nude in broad midday,? animally 
physical, exuberant, ecstatic, crying aloud the primitive 
refrain, Paris, éraipe Baxxiov, Evyxwue, vuxTepoTAaryTe, MOLXE, 
mawWepacra, (Phales, boon mate of Bacchus, joyous comrade. 
in the dance, wanton wanderer o’ nights, fornicating Phales), 
in a word he was Paganism incarnate, and Paganism was 
the Christian’s deadliest foe ; so they took him, the Bacchic 
reveller, they smutted him from horn to hoof, and he 
remained the Christian’s deadliest foe, the Devil.? 

It was long before the phallic demon was banished the 
stage, for strange as it may seem, positive evidence exists 


278 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


that he was known there as late as Shakespeare’s day. 
In 1620 was published in London by Edward Wright 4 
Courtly Masque: The Deuice called, The World tost at Tennis. 
‘‘ As it hath beene diuers times Presented to the Contentment 
of many Noble and Worthy Spectators: By the Prince his 
Seruants.” It was ‘“Inuented and set downe by Tho: 
Middleton, Gent. and William Rowley, Gent.” The title-page 
presents a rough engraving of the various characters in this 
masque, doubtless from a sketch made at the actual per- 
formance. Outside the main group stands a hideous black 
figure ‘‘ The Diuele,” who made his appearance towards the 
end to take part in the last dance, furnished with horns, 
hoofs, talons, tail, and a monstrous phallus. It may be 
remarked that these horns are prominent on the goat-like 
head (a clear satyr) of the Devil in Doctor Faustus as depicted 
on the title-page of the Marlovian quarto. A phallus, to 
which reference is made in the text, was also worn. by the 
character dressed up as the monkey (Bavian) in the May- 
dance scene in Shakespeare & Fletcher’s The Two Noble 
Kinsman, Act III, 5, 1618. It is worth remembering that 
troops of phallic demons formed a standing characteristic 
of the old German carnival comedy. Moreover, several of the 
grotesque types of the Commedia dell’ arte in the second 
decade of the seventeenth century were traditionally equipped 
in like manner.? That the Devil was so represented in the 
English theatre is important. It gives us the popular idea 
of the Prince of Evil, and incidentally throws a side-light 
upon much of the grotesque and obscene evidence in the 
contemporary witch-trials. 

In Skelton’s lost Nigramansir one of the stage directions 
is stated to have been ‘‘ Enter Balsebub with a beard,’’ no 
doubt the black vizard with an immense goatish beard 
familiar to the old religious drama. Presumably the chief 
use of the Necromancer, who gives his name to this play, 
was indeed but to speak the Prologue which summons 
the Devil who buffets and kicks him for his pains. 
However, we only know the play from Warton, who 
describes it as having been shown him by William Collins, 
the poet, at Chichester, about 1759. He says: “It is the 
Nigramansir, a morall Enterlude and a pithie, written by 
Maister Skelton laureate, and plaid before the King and other 


WITCH IN DRAMATIC LITERATURE 279 


estatys at Woodstoke on Palme Sunday. It was printed by 
Wynkyn de Worde in a thin quarto, in the year 1504. It 
must have been presented before Henry VII, at the royal 
manor or palace at Woodstock in Oxfordshire, now destroyed. 
The characters are a Necromancer or conjurer, the devil, a 
notary public, Simony, and Philargyria or Avarice. It is 
partly a satire on some abuses in the Church. . . . The story, 
or plot, is the trial of Simony and Avarice.”” Beyond what 
Warton tells us nothing further is known of the play. Ritson, 
Bibliographia Poetica, 106, declared : “‘ it is utterly incredible 
that the Nigramansir . . . ever existed.’’ It has been shown, 
too, that Warton as a literary historian is not infrequently 
suspect, and E. G. Duff, Hand Lists of English Printers, can 
trace no extant copy of this “‘ morall Enterlude.” 

In the English moralities the Devil plays an important 
part, and, as in their French originals or analogues, he 1s 
consistently hampering and opposing the moral purpose or 
lesson which the action of these compositions is designed to 
enforce. In the later English plays also which evolved with 
added regularity from these interludes the Devil is always a 
popular character. He is generally attended by the Vice, 
who although in some sort a serving-man or jester in the 
fiend’s employ, devotes his time to twitting, teazing, torment- 
ing, and thwarting his master for the edification, not unmixed 
with fun, of the audience. In The Castell of Perseverance 
Lucifer appears shouting in good old fashion ‘* Out herowe 
I rore,’’ just as he was wont to announce himself in the 
Mysteries, and he is wearing his “ devil’s array’ over the 
habit of a “‘ prowde galaunt.’’ Wever’s Lusty Juventus has 
unmistakable traces of the slime of the evil days of Edward VI, 
in whose reign it was written, and when the Devil calls 
‘Hipocrisy to his aid we are prepared for a flood of empty 
but bitter abuse which embodies the sour Puritan hatred 
against the Catholic Church, and towards the end, under the 
misnomer God’s Merciful Promises, we are not surprised to 
meet a tiresome old gentleman who cantingly expounds the 
doctrine of Justification by Faith. 

In the interlude to which Collier has assigned the name 
Mankind Mischief summons to her aid the fiend Titivillus, 
who had appeared in the Judiciwm of the Towneley Mysteries. 
Once the Devil’s registrar and tollsman, he is best known as 


280 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


“Master Lollard.”? According to a silly old superstition 
Titivillus was an imp whose business it was to pick up 
the words any priest might drop and omit whilst saying 
Mass. , 

When we pass to the beginnings of the regular drama we 
find an extremely interesting play that introduces, if not 
magic, at least fortune-telling, John Lyly’s ‘‘ Pleasant Con- 
ceited Comedie’’ Mother Bombie, acted by the children of 
Paul’s and first printed in 1594. Although the plot is of the 
utmost complexity and artificiality it does not seem to be 
derived, as are most of Lyly’s stories, from any classical or 
pseudo-classical source, whilst the cunning old woman of 
Rochester, who supplies the title, has in fact little to say or 
do, except that her intervention helps to bring about the 
unravelling of a perfect maze and criss-cross of incidents. 
When Selena addresses the beldame with ‘“‘ They say, you 
are a witch,’”’ Mother Bombie quickly retorts ‘‘ They lie, 
I am a cunning woman,”’ a passage not without significance. 

Upon a very different level from Lyly’s play stands 
Marlowe’s magnificent drama The Tragical History of Dr. 
Faustus. The legend of a man who sells his soul to the Devil 
for infinite knowledge and absolute power seems to have 
crystallized about the sixth century, when the story of 
Theophilus was supposed to have been related in Greek by 
his pupil Kutychianus. Ofcourse, every warlock had bartered 
his soul to Satan, and throughout the whole of the Middle 
Ages judicial records, the courts of the Inquisition, to say 
nothing of popular knowledge, could have told of a thousand 
such. But this particular legend seems to have captured the 
imagination of both Western and Eastern Christendom; it is 
met with in a variety of forms; it was introduced into the 
collections of Jacopo 4 Voragine; it found its way into the 
minstrel repertory through Rutebeuf, a French trouvére of the 
thirteenth century ; it reappeared in early English narrative 
and in Low-German drama. Icelandic variants of the story 
have been traced. It was made the subject of a poem by 
William Forrest, priest and poet, in 1572; and it also formed 
the material for two seventeenth-century Jesuit ‘‘ comedies.” 

That the original Faust was a real personage,‘ a wandering 
conjurer and medical quack, who was well known in the 
south-west of the German Empire, as well as in Thuringia, 


WITCH IN DRAMATIC LITERATURE 281 


Saxony, and the adjoining countries somewhere between 
the years 1510-1540, does not now admit of any serious 
doubt. Philip Begardi, a physician of Worms, author 
of an Index Sanitatis (1539), mentions this charlatan, 
many of whose dupes he personally knew. He says that 
Faust was at one time frequently seen, although of later 
years nothing had been heard of him. It has indeed been 
suggested the whole legend originated in the strange history 
of Pope S. Clement I and his father Faustus, or Faustinianus, 
as related in the Recognitions, which were immensely popular 
throughout the Middle Ages. But Melanchthon knew a 
Johannes Faustus born at Kniitlingen, in Wurtemberg, not far 
from his own home, who studied magic at Cracow, and after- 
wards “‘ roamed about and talked of secret things.’’ There was 
a doctor Faustus in the early part of the sixteenth century, a 
friend of Paracelsus and Cornelius Agrippa, a scholar who won 
an infamous reputation for the practice of necromancy. In 
1513 Conrad Mutt, the Humanist, came across a vagabond 
magician at Erfurt named Georgius Faustus Hermitheus 
of Heidelberg. Trithemius in 1506, met a Faustus junior 
whose boast it was that if all the works of Plato and Aristotle 
were burned he could restore them from memory. It seems 
probable that it was to the Dr. Faustus, the companion of 
Paracelsus and Cornelius® Agrippa, that the legend became 
finally and definitely attached. The first literary version of 
the story was the Volksbuch, which was published by Johann 
Spies in 1587, at Frankfort-on-the-Main, who tells us that 
he obtained the manuscript ‘‘ from a good friend at Spier,” 
and it soon afterwards appeared in England as The History 
of the Damnable Life and Deserved Death of Dr. John Faustus, 
a chap-book to which Marlowe mainly adhered for the 
incidents in his play. The tragedy was carried across to 
Germany by the English actors who visited that country in 
the last years of the sixteenth and the earlier part of the | 
seventeenth century, and thus, while it was itself derived 
from a German source, it greatly influenced, if it did not 
. actually give rise to, the treatment of the same theme by 
the German popular drama and puppet-play. These were 
seldom printed, and usually for the most part extem- 
porized, keeping all the while more or less closely to 
the theme. Scheible in his Kloster (1847), Volume V, gives 


282 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


the excellent Ulm piece, and there are marionette versions 
edited by W. Hamm (1850; English translation by T. C. H. 
Hedderwick, 1887), O. Schade (1856), K. Engel (1874), 
Bielschowsky (1882), and Kralik and Winter (1885). 

Lessing projected two presentations of the story, and 
Klinger worked the subject into a romance, Fausts Leben, 
Thaten, und Hiéllenfahrt (1791; translated into English by 
George Barrow in 1826). A bombast tragedy was published 
by Klingemann in 1815, whilst Lenau issued his epico- 
dramatic Faust in 1836. Heine’s ballet Der Doctor Faust, ein 
Tanzpoem appeared in 1851. The libretto for Spohr’s opera 
(1814) was written by Bernard. 

Goethe’s masterpiece, planned as early as 1774, was given 
to the world in 1808, but the second part was delayed until 
1831. 

General evidence points to 1588 as the date of the 
first production of Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, for it seems 
certain that the ballad of the Life and Death of Doctor 
Faustus the great Conjurer, entered in the Stationers’ Register, 
February, 1589, did not precede but was suggested by the 
drama. The first extant quarto is 1604, but already it had 
been subjected to more than one revision. Upon the stage 
Doctor Faustus long remained popular, and in England, at 
least, however fragmentary Marlowe’s tragedy may be it 
has never been supplemented by any other literary handling 
of its theme. Old Prynne in his Histriomastix (1633) retails 
an absurd story to the effect that the Devil in propria persona 
‘‘ appeared on the stage at the Belsavage Playhouse in Queen 
Elizabeth’s days’? whilst the tragedy was being performed, 
“ the truth of which I have heard from many now alive who 
well remember it.”? It was revived after the Restoration, and 
on Monday, 26 May, 1662, Pepys and his wife witnessed the 
production at the Red Bull, “ but so wretchedly and poorly 
done that we were sick of it.”” It was being performed at the 
Theatre Royal in the autumn of 1675, but no details are 
recorded. In 1685-6 at Dorset Garden appeared William 
Mountfort’s The Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, Made into 
a Farce, with the Humours of Harlequin and Scaramouch, a 
queer mixture of Marlowe’s scenes with the Italian commedia 
dell’ arte. Harlequin was acted by nimble Thomas Jevon, 
the first English harlequin, and Scaramouch by Antony Leigh, 


WITCH IN DRAMATIC LITERATURE 283 


the most whimsical of comedians. At the end of the third 
act after Faustus has been carried away by Lucifer and 
Mephistopheles, his body is discovered torn in pieces. Then 
““ Faustus Limbs come together. A Dance and Song.’ This 
farce was continually revived with great applause, and during 
the whole of the eighteenth century Faust was the central 
figure of pantomime after pantomime. Nearly forty dramatic 
versions of the Faust legend might be enumerated. Many 
are wildly romantic and were especially beloved of the minor 
theatres: such are Faustus by G. Soane and D. Terry, 
produced at Drury Lane 16 May, 1825, with ‘‘O” Smith 
as Mephistopheles; H. P. Grattan’s Faust, or The Demon 
of the Drachenfels performed at Sadlers Wells, 5 September, 
1842, with Henry Marston, Mephistopheles, T. Lyon, Faust, 
“the Magician of Wittenberg,’ Caroline MRankley, 
Marguerite; T. W. Robertson’s Faust and Marguerite, 
played at the Princess’s Theatre in April, 1854: some are 
operatic ; the ever-popular Faust of Gounod, with libretto by 
Barbier and Carré, first seen at the Thédtre Lyrique, 
Paris, in 1859; and Hector Berlioz’ The Damnation 
of Faust, which, adapted to the English stage by T. H. 
Friend, was performed at the Court, Liverpool, 3 February, 
1894; many more are burlesques, descendants of the 
eighteenth-century farces, amongst which may be remembered 
F.C. Burnard’s Faust and Marguerite, S. James, 9 July, 1864 ; 
C. H. Hazlewood’s Faust: or Marguerite’s Mangle, Britannia 
Theatre, 25 March, 1867; Byron’s Litile Doctor Faust (1877) ; 
Faust in Three Flashes (1884) ; Faust in Forty Minutes (1885); 
and the most famous of all the travesties Faust Up to Date, 
produced at the Gaiety, 30 October, 1888, with E. J. Lonnen 
as Mephistopheles and Florence St. John as Marguerite. In 
France the Faust—apres Goethe—of Theaulou and Gondelier 
first seen at the Nouveautés, 27 October, 1827, had a great 
success, and in the following year no less than three pens, . 
Antony Béraud, Charles Nodier, and Merle, combined to 
produce a Faust in three acts, the music of which is by 
Louis Alexandre Piccini, the grandson of Gluck’s famous 
rival. In 1858 Adolphe Dennery gave the Parisian stage 
Faust, a “‘drame fantastique”’ in five acts and sixteen 
tableaux, a drama of the Grattan school, effective enough 
in a lurid Sadlers Wells way, which is, at any rate, a 


284 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


vein greater dramatists have exploited with profit and 
applause. 

Of more recent English dramas which have the Faust legend 
as their theme the most striking is undoubtedly the adapta- 
tion by W. G. Wills from the first part of Goethe's tragedy, 
which was produced at the Lyceum 19 December, 1885, 
with H. H. Conway as Faust; George Alexander, Valentine ; 
Mrs. Stirling,.Martha; Miss Ellen Terry, Margaret ; and 
Henry Irving, Mephistopheles. Not merely in view of the 
masterpieces of Marlowe and Goethe, but even by the side 
of theatrical versions of the legend from far lesser men the 
play itself was naught, a superb pantomime, a thing helped 
out by a witches’ kitchen, by a bacchanalia of demons, by 
chromo-lithographic effects, by the mechanist and the brushes 
of Telbin and Hawes Craven, but it was informed throughout 
and raised to heights of greatness, nay, even to awe and 
terror, by the genius of Irving as the red-plumed Mephis- 
topheles, that sardonic, weary, restless figure, horribly unreal 
yet mockingly alert and alive, who dominated the whole. 

To attempt a comparison between Marlowe and Goethe 
were not a little absurd, and it is superfluous to expatiate 
upon the supreme merits of either masterpiece. In Goethe’s 
mighty and complex work the story is in truth refined away 
beneath a wealth of immortal philosophy. Marlowe adheres 
quite simply to the chap-book incidents, and yet in all profane 
literature I scarcely know words of more shuddering dread 
and complete agony than Faust’s last great speech : 


Ah, Faustus, 
Now hast thou but one bare hour to live. 
And then thou must be damned perpetually | 


The scene becomes intolerable. It is almost too painful to 
be read, too overcharged with hopeless darkness and despair. 

As it is in some sense at least akin to the Faust story it 
may not be impertinent briefly to mention here an early 
Dutch secular drama, which has been called ‘‘ one of the 
gems of Dutch medieval literature,” A Marvellous History 
of Mary of Nimmegen, who for more than seven years lived 
and had ado with the Devil,® printed by William Vorsterman 
of Antwerp about 1520. It is only necessary to call attention 
to a few features of the legend. Mary, the niece of the old 


WITCH IN DRAMATIC LITERATURE 285 


priest Sir Gysbucht, one night meets the Devil in the shape 
of Moonen with the single eye. He undertakes to teach her 
all the secrets of necromancy if she will but refrain from 
crossing herself and change her name to Lena of Gretchen. 
But Mary, who has had a devotion to our Lady, insists upon 
retaining at least the M in her new nomenclature, and so 
becomes Emmekin. ‘‘ Thus Emma and Moonen lived at 
Antwerp at the sign of the Golden Tree in the market, where 
daily of his contrivings were many murders and slayings 
together with every sort of wickedness.’’ Emma then resolves 
to visit her uncle, and insists upon Moonen accompanying 
her to Nimmegen. It is a high holiday and she sees by chance 
the mystery of Maskeroon on a pageant-waggon in a public 
square. Our Lady is pleading before the throne of God for 
mankind, and Emma is filled with strange remorse to hear 
such blessed words. Moonen carries her off, but she falls 
and is found in a swoon by the old priest, her uncle. No 
priest of Nimmegen dared shrive her, not even the Bishop 
of Cologne, and so she journeyed to Rome, where the Holy 
Father heard her confession and bade her wear in penitence 
three strong bands of iron fastened upon neck and arms. 
Thus she returned to Maestricht to the cloister of the 
Converted Sinners, and there her sorrow was so prevailing 
and her humility so unfeigned that an Angel in token of 
Divine forgiveness removed the irons as she slept. 


And go ye to Maestricht, an ye be able 
And in the Converted Sinners shall ye see 
The grave of Emma, and there all three 
The rings be hung above her grave.’ 


Magic and fairy-land loom large in the plays of Robert 
Greene, whose place in English literature rests at least as 
much upon his prose-tracts as on his dramas. It seems to 
me fairly obvious that The Honourable History of Friar Bacon | 
and Friar Bungay, which almost certainly dates from 1589, 
although the first quarto is 1594, was composed owing to the 
success of Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus. Greene was not the 
man to lose an opportunity of exploiting fashion, and with 
his solid British bent I have no doubt he considered an old 
English tale of an Oxford magician would be just as effective 
as imported legends from Frankfort and Wittenberg. To 


2386 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


say that the later play is on an entirely different level is not 
to deny it interest and considerable charm. But in spite 
of Bacon’s avowal 


Thou know’st that I have divéd into hell 
And sought the darkest palaces of fiends ; 
That with my magic spells great Belcephon, 
Hath left his lodge and kneeled at my cell, 


his sorceries are in lighter vein than those of Faustus ; 
moreover neither his arts nor the magic of Friar Bungay. 
form the essential theme of the play, which also sketches the 
love of Edward, Prince of Wales (afterwards Edward I) for 
Margaret, ‘‘ the fair Maid of Fressingfield.”” It is true Bacon 
conjures up spirits enough, and we are shown his study at 
Brasenose with the episode of the Brazen Head. It may be 
noted that Miles, Bacon’s servant, is exactly the Vice of the 
Moralities, and at the end he rides off farcically enough on 
the Devil’s back, whilst Bacon announces his intention of 
spending the remainder of his years in becoming penitence 
for his necromancy and magic. 

In Greene’s Orlando Furioso, 4to, 1594, which is based on 
Ariosto, canto XXIII, we meet Melissa, an enchantress : and 
in Alphonsus, King of Arragon, 4to, 1599, which is directly 
imitative of Tamburlaine, a sibyl with the classical name 
Medea, conjures up Calehas ‘‘in a white surplice and 
cardinal’s mitre,’’ and here we also have a Brazen Head 
through which Mahomet speaks. A far more interesting 
play is A Looking Glasse for London and England, 4to, 1594, 
an elaborated Mystery upon the history of the prophet Jonah 
and the repentance of Nineveh. Among the characters are 
a Good Angel, an Evil Angel, and “‘one clad in Devil’s 
attire,’’ who is soundly drubbed by Adam the buffoon. In 
1598 was published, ‘‘ As it hath bene sundrie times publikely 
plaide,” The Scottish Historie of Iames the fourth, slawne at 
Flodden. Entermized with a pleasant Comedie, presented by 
Oboram, King of Fayeries. But the fairies only appear in a 
species of prose prologue, and in brief interludes between 
the acts. 

George Peele’s charming piece of folk-lore The Old Wives’ 
Tale introduces among its quaint commixture of episodes 
the warlock Sacripant, son of a famous witch Meroe,* who 


WITCH IN DRAMATIC LITERATURE 287 


has stolen away and keeps under a spell the princess Delia. 
His power depends upon a light placed in a magic glass 
which can only be broken under certain conditions. Eventu- 
ally Sacripant is overcome by the aid of a friendly ghost, 
Jack, the glass broken, the light extinguished, and the lady 
restored to her lover and friends. 

Other magicians who appear in various dramas of the days 
of Elizabeth and her immediate successors are Brian Sansfoy 
in the primitive Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes, 4to, 1599 ; 
the Magician in The Wars of Cyrus; Friar Bacon, Friar 
Bungay, and Jaques Vandermast in Greene’s Friar Bacon 
and Friar Bungay, Merlin and Proximus in the pseudo- 
Shakespearean The Birth of Merlin, where the Devil also 
figures ; Ormandini and Argalio in The Seven Champions of 
Christendom, where we likewise have Calib, a witch, her 
incubus Tarpax, and Suckabus their clownish son; Comus 
in Milton’s masque; Mago the conjurer with his three 
familiars Eo, Meo, and Areo in Cokain’s Trappolin Creduto 
Principe, Trappolix suppos’d a Prince, 4to, 1656, excellent 
light fare, which Nahum Tate turned into A Duke and No 
Duke and produced at Drury Lane in November, 1684, and 
which in one form or another, sometimes ‘‘a comic melo- 
dramatic burletta,’”? sometimes a ballad opera, sometimes a 
farce, was popular until the early decades of the nineteenth 
century. 

Seeing that actors are ‘‘ the abstracts and brief chronicles 
of the time,”’ it is not surprising to find that Witchcraft has 
a very important part in the theatre of Shakespeare. Setting 
aside such a purely fairy fantasy as 4 Midsummer-Night’s 
Dream, such figures as the ‘‘ threadbare juggler”? Pinch in 
The Comedy of Errors, such scenes as the hobgoblin mask 
beneath Herne’s haunted oak, such references as that to 
Mother Prat, the old woman of Brainford, who worked 
‘‘ by charms, by spells, by the figure,” or the vile abuse by | 
Richard, Duke of Gloucester, of ‘‘ Edward’s wife, that 
monstrous witch, Consorted with that harlot strumpet 
Shore,’’ we have one historical drama King Henry VI, 
Part II, in which an incantation scene plays no small part ; 
we have one romantic comedy The Tempest, one tragedy 
Macbeth, the very motives and development of which are 
due to magic and supernatural charms. It must perhaps be 


9388 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


remarked that King Henry VI, Part I, is defiled by the 
obscene caricature of S. Joan of Arc, surely the most foul 
and abominable irreverence that shames English literature. 
It is too loathsome for words, and I would only point out 
the enumeration in one scene where various familiars are 
introduced of the most revolting details of contemporary 
witch-trials, but to think of such horrors in connexion with 
S, Joan revolts and sickens the imagination. 

In King Henry VI (Part II) the Duchess of Gloucester 
employs John Hume and John Southwell, two priests ; 
Bolingbroke, a conjurer ; and Margery Jourdemain, a witch, 
to raise a spirit who shall reveal the several destinies of the 
King, and the Dukes of Suffolk and Somerset. The scene 
is written with extraordinary power and has not a little of 
awe and terror. Just as the demon is dismissed ’mid thunder 
and lightning the Duke of York with his guards rush in and 
arrest the sorcerers. Later the two priests and Bolingbroke 
are condemned to the gallows, the witch in Smithfield is 
“ burn’d to ashes,” whilst the Duchess of Gloucester after 
three days’ public penance is banished for life to the Isle 
of Man. 

The incidents as employed by Shakespeare are fairly 
correct. It is certain that the Duchess of Gloucester, an 
ambitious and licentious woman, called to her counsels 
Margery Jourdemain, commonly known as the Witch of Eye, 
Roger Bolingbroke an astrologer, Thomas Southwell, Canon 
of S. Stephen’s, a priest named Sir John Hume or Hun, and 
a certain William Wodham. These persons frequently met 
in secret, and it was discovered that they had fashioned 
according to the usual mode a wax image of the King which 
they melted before a slow fire. Bolingbroke confessed, and 
Hume also turned informer; and in 1441 Bolingbroke was 
placed on a high scaffold before Paul’s Cross together with a 
chair curiously carved and painted, found at his lodging, 
which was supposed to be an instrument of necromancy, and 
in the presence of Cardinal Beaufort of Winchester, Henry 
Chicheley, Archbishop of Canterbury, and an imposing 
array of bishops, he was compelled to make abjuration 
of his wicked arts. The Duchess of Gloucester, being re- 
fused sanctuary at Westminster, was arrested and confined 
in Leeds Castle, near Maidstone. She was brought to trial 


WITCH IN DRAMATIC LITERATURE 289 


with her accomplices in October, when sentence was passed 
upon her as has been related above. Margery Jourdemain 
perished at the stake as a witch and relapsed heretic ; Thomas 
Southwell died in prison; and Bolingbroke was hanged at 
Tyburn, 18 November. 

In The Tempest Prospero is a philosopher rather than a 
wizard, and Ariel is a fairy not a familiar. The magic of 
Prospero is of the intellect, and throughout, Shakespeare is 
careful to insist upon a certain detachment from human 
passions and ambitions. His love for Miranda, indeed, is 
exquisitely portrayed, and once—at the base ingratitude of 
Caliban—his anger flashes forth, but none the less, albeit 
superintending the fortunes of those over whom he watches 
tenderly, and utterly abhorring the thought of revenge, he 
seems to stand apart like Providence divinely guiding the 
events to the desired issue of reconciliation and forgiveness. 
Even so, the situation was delicate to place before an Eliza- 
bethan audience, and how nobly and with what art does Shakes- 
peare touch upon Prospero’s ‘‘ rough magic’’! In Sycorax 
we recognize the typical witch, wholly evil, vile, malignant, 
terrible for mischief, the consort and mistress of devils. 

There are few scenes which have so caught the world’s 
fancy as the wild overture to Macbeth. In storm and wilder- 
ness we are suddenly brought face to face with three 
mysterious phantasms that ride on the wind and mingle with 
the mist in thunder, lightning, and in rain. They are not 
agents of evil, they are evil; nameless, spectral, wholly 
horrible. And then, after the briefest of intervals, they 
reappear to relate such exploits as killing swine and begging 
chestnuts from a sailor’s wife, to brag of having secured such 
talismans as the thumb of a drowned pilot, businesses proper 
to Mother Demdike or Anne Bishop of Wincanton, Somerset. 
Can this change have been intentional? I think not, and 
its very violence and quickness are jarring to a degree. The 
meeting with Hecate, who is angry, and scolds them “ bel-_ 
dames as you are, Saucy and overbold” does not mend 
matters, and in spite of the horror when the apparitions are 
evoked, the ingredients of the cauldron, however noisome 
and hideous, are too material for ‘‘ A deed without a name.” 
There is a weakness here, and it says much for the genius 
of the tragedy that this weakness is not obtrusively felt. 

U 


290 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


Nevertheless it was upon this that the actors seized when for 
theatrical effect the incantation scenes had to be “ written 
up” by the interpolation of fresh matter. Davenant also 
in his frankly operatic version of Macbeth, produced at Dorset 
Garden in February, 1672-8 elaborated the witch scenes to 
an incredible extent, although by ample conveyance from 
Middleton’s The Witch together with songs and dances he 
was merely following theatrical tradition.® 

There seems no reasonable doubt that The Witch is a later 
play than Macbeth, but it is only fair to say that the 
date of The Witch is unknown—it was first printed in 1778 
from a manuscript now in the Bodleian—and the date of 
Macbeth (earlier than 1610, probably 1606) is not demon- 
strably certain. The Witch is a good but not a distinguished 
play. Owing to the incantation scenes and its connexion 
with Macbeth it has acquired an accidental interest, and an 
enduring reputation. The witches themselves, Hecate and 
her crew, stand midway between the mystic Norns of the 
first scene in Macbeth, and the miserable hag of Dekker in 
The Witch of Edmonton; they are just a little below the 
Witches in Macbeth as they appear after the opening lines. 
There is a ghastly fantasy in their revels which is not lessened 
by the material grossness of Firestone the clown, Hecate’s 
son. They raise “ jars, jealousies, strifes, and heart-burning 
disagreements, like a thick scurf o’er life,” and although 
their figures are often grotesque their power for evil is not 
to be despised. Much of their jargon, their charms and 
gaucheries complete, are taken word for word from Reginald 
Scott’s Discoverie of Witchcraft, London, 1584. 

The village witch, as she appeared to her contemporaries, 
a filthy old doting crone, hunch-backed, ignorant, malevolent, 
hateful to God and man, is shown with photographic detail 
in The Witch of Edmonton ; A known True Story by Rowley, 
Dekker, and Ford, produced at the Cockpit in Drury Lane 
during the autumn or winter of 1621. It seems to have been 
very popular at the time, and not only was it applauded in 
the public theatre, but it was presented before King James 
at Court. It did not, however, find its way into print until 
as late as 1658. 

The trial and execution (19 April, 1621) of Elizabeth 
Sawyer attracted a considerable amount of attention. 


PLATE VIII 


The Witch of Edmonton 


“- -Aknowntrde ST 0 R x. 
Compofed into 


A TRAGICOMED\ 


By divers well-efteemed Poers ; 


William Rowley. Thomas Dekker, Fobn Ford, & 


Poe Py the Princes Servants, often ac the Cock-Pit in Drur y- LAbey. 
once at Court, wich fingular Applaufe.. 


ites er Pe ted t: dd HOW. 





to eee . 
Sane ra DeceMtr nomen tuum | 


Mote. gue 





py 


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Les 


London,: Printed by }. Cah ve Eiger ee the Boe el in 
“Paul's Chureh- yard, 1658. 


THE WITCH OF EDMONTON 
The First Quarto 


[ face p. 290 





WITCH IN DRAMATIC LITERATURE 291 


Remarkable numbers of ballads and doggerel songs were 
made upon the event, detailing her enchantments, how she 
had blighted standing corn, how a ferret and an owl con- 
stantly attended her, and of many demons and familiars who 
companied with her in the prison. Not only were these 
ditties trolled out the day of the execution but many were 
published as broadsides, and sold widely. Accordingly the 
Newgate Ordinary hastened to pen The Wonderfull Discoverie 
of Elizabeth Sawyer, a Witch, Late of Edmonton, Her Con- 
viction, and Condemnation, and Death, Together with the 
Relation of the Divels Accesse to Her, and Their Conference 
Together, ‘‘ Written by Henry Goodcole, Minister of the Word 
of God, and her Continual Visiter in the Gaole of Newgate,” 
Published by Authority, 4to, 1621. This tractate is in the 
form of a dialogue, question and answer, between Goodcole 
and the prisoner, who makes ample confession of her crimes. 

In some ways The Witch of Edmonton is the most interest- 
ing and valuable of the witch dramas, because here we have 
the hag stripped of the least vestige of glamour and romance © 
presented to us in the starkest realism. We see her dwelling 
apart in a wretched hovel, ‘‘ shunned and hated like a sick- 
ness,’ miserably poor, buckl’d and bent together, dragging 
her palsied limbs wearily through the fields, as she clutches 
her dirty rags round her withered frame. And if she but 
dare to gather a few dried sticks in a corner she is driven 
from the spot with hard words and blows. What wonder 
her mouth is full of cursing and revenge ? 


’Tis all one 
To be a witch as to be counted one. 


Then appears the Black Dog and seals a contract with her 
blood. She blights the corn and sends a murrain on the cattle 
of her persecutors; here a horse has the glanders, there a sow 
casts her farrow ; the maid churns butter nine hours and it will 
not come ; above all a farmer’s wife, whom she hates, goes mad 
and dies in frantic agony ; mischief and evil run riot through 
the town. But presently her familiar deserts her, she falls 
into the hands of human justice, and after due trial is dragged 
to Tyburn shrieking and crying out in hideous despair. It is 
a sordid and a terrible, but one cannot doubt, a true picture. 

It is obvious that in this drama?? Frank Thorney, a most 


292 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


subtle and minute study of weakness and degeneracy, is 
wholly Ford’s. Frank Thorney may be closely paralleled 
with Giovanni in ’7%s Pity She’s a Whore. Winnifride, too, 
has all the sentimental charm of Ford’s heroines, Annabella 
and Penthea. 

Carter is unmistakably the creation of Dekker. Simon 
Eyre and Orlando Friscobaldo are the same hearty, bluff, 
hospitable, essentially honest old fellows. To Dekker also 
I would assign Mother Sawyer herself. 

Rowley’s hand is especially discernible in the scenes where 
Cuddy Banks and the clowns make their appearance. 

It may be mentioned that Elizabeth Sawyer figures in 
Caulfield’s Portraits, Memoirs, and Characters of Remarkable 
Persons, 1794; and she is also referred to in Robinson’s 
History and Antiquities of the Parish of Edmonton with a 
woodcut ‘‘ from a rare print in the collection of W. Beckford, 
esq.” 

A second drama which was also actually founded upon 
a contemporary trial is Heywood and Brome’s The Late 
Lancashire Witches, ‘‘A Well Received Comedy” pro- 
duced at the Globe in 1684.11 In the previous year, 1638, 
a number of trials for Witchcraft had drawn the attention 
of all England to Pendle Forest. A boy, by name Edmund 
Robinson, eleven years of age, who dwelt here with his father, 
a poor wood-cutter, told a long and detailed story which led 
to numerous arrests throughout the district. Upon All Saints’ 
Day when gathering “ bulloes”’ in a field he saw two grey- 
hounds, one black, the other brown, each wearing a collar 
of gold. They fawned upon him, and immediately a hare 
rose quite near at hand. But the dogs refused to course, 
whereupon he beat them with a little switch, and the black 
greyhound started up in the shape of an old woman whom 
he recognized as Mother Dickenson, a notorious witch, and 
the other as a little boy whom he did not know. The beldame 
offered him money, either to buy his silence or as the price 
of his soul, but he refused. Whereupon taking something 
like a Bridle ‘‘ that gingled ’’ from her pocket she threw it 
over the little boy’s head and he became a white horse. 
Seizing young Robinson in her arms they mounted and 
were conveyed with the utmost speed to a large house where 
had assembled some sixty other persons. A bright fire was 


WITCH IN DRAMATIC LITERATURE 293 


burning on the hearth with roast meat before it. He was 
invited to partake of ‘‘ Flesh and Bread upon a Trencher 
and Drink in a Glass,’’ which he tasted, but at once rejected. 
He was next led into an adjoining barn where seven old 
women were pulling at seven halters that hung from the roof. 
As they tugged large pieces of meat, butter in lumps, loaves 
of bread, black puddings, milk, and all manner of rustic 
dainties fell down into large basins which were placed under 
the ropes. When the seven hags were tired their places 
were taken by seven others. But as they were engaged at 
their extraordinary task their faces seemed so fiendish and 
their glances were so evil that Robinson took to his heels. 
He was instantly pursued, and he saw that the foremost of 
his enemies was a certain Mother Lloynd. But luckily for 
himself two horsemen, travellers, came up, whereupon the 
witches vanished. A little later when he was sent in the 
evening to fetch home two kine, a boy met him in the dusk 
and fought him, bruising him badly. Looking down he saw 
that his opponent had a cloven foot, whereupon he ran away, © 
only to meet Mother Lloynd with a lantern in her hand. She 
drove him back and he was again mauled by the cloven- 
footed boy.?? 

Such was the story told to the justices and corroborated 
by Robinson’s father. A reign of terror ensued. Mother 
Dickenson and Mother Lloynd were at once thrown into jail, 
and in the next few days more than eighteen persons were 
arrested. The informer and his father netted a good sum by 
going round from church to church to point out in the 
congregations persons whom he recognized as having been 
in the house and barn to which he was led. A little quiet 
blackmail of the wealthier county families, threats to disclose 
the presence of various individuals at the witches’ feast, 
brought in several hundreds of pounds. 

The trial took place at Lancaster Assizes and seventeen 
of the accused were incontinently found guilty. But the 
judge, completely dissatisfied with so fantastic a story, 
obtained a reprieve. Four of the prisoners were sent up to 
London, where they were examined by the Court physicians. 
King Charles. himself also questioned one of these poor 
wretches and, discerning that the whole history was a fraud, 
forthwith pardoned all who had been involved. Meantime 


294 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


Dr. John Bridgeman, the Bishop of Chester, had also been 
holding a special inquiry into the case. Young Robinson 
was lodged separately, being allowed to hold no communi- 
cation with his relatives, and when closely interrogated he 
gave way and confessed that the scare from beginning to 
end had been manceuvred by his father, who carefully coached 
him in his lies. In spite of this fiasco the talk did not die 
down immediately, and there were many who continued to 
maintain that Mother Dickenson was indeed a witch, however 
false the evidence on this occasion might be. It must be 
remembered, moreover, that twenty-two years before, in 
the very same district, a coven of thirteen witches, of whom 
the chief was Elizabeth Demdike, had been brought to 
justice, “‘ at the Assizes and Generall Gaole-Delivery, holden 
at Lancaster, before Sir Edward Bromley and Sir James 
Eltham.” Old Demdike herself—she was blind and over 
eighty years of age—died in prison, but ten of the accused 
were executed, and the trial, which lasted two days, occa- 
sioned a tremendous stir. 

It seems not at all improbable that Heywood had written 
a topical play in 1612 dealing with this first sensational 
prosecution, and that when practically the same events 
repeated themselves in the same place less than a quarter 
of a century after he and the ever-ready Brome fashioned 
anew the old scenes. In the character of the honourable 
country-gentleman Master Generous, whose wife is discovered 
to be guilty of Witchcraft, there is something truly noble, 
and his tender forgiveness of her crime when she repents is 
touched with the loving pathos that informs 4 Woman Kuilde 
with Kindnesse, whilst his agony at her subsequent relapse 
is very real, although Heywood has wisely refrained from 
any attempt to show a broken heart save by a few quite 
simple but poignant words. The play as a whole is a faithful 
picture of country life, homely enough, yet not without a 
certain winsome beauty. The comic episodes are sufficiently 
broad in their humour; we have a household turned topsy- 
turvy by enchantment, a wedding-breakfast bewitched: the 
kitchen invaded by snakes, bats, frogs, beetles, and hornets, 
whilst to cap all the unfortunate bridegroom is rendered 
impotent. In Act II we have the incident of a Boy with a 
switch (young Edmund Robinson) and the two greyhounds. 


WITCH IN DRAMATIC LITERATURE 295 


Gammer Dickison carries him off against his will “‘ to a brave 
feast,’’ where we see the witches pulling ropes for food : 


Pul for the poultry, foule and fish, 
For emptie shall not be a dish. 


In Act V the Boy tells Doughty the story of his encounter 
with the Devil: ‘‘ He came to thee like a boy, thou sayest, 
about thine owne bisnesse ?”’ they ask him, and the whole 
scene meticulously follows the detailed evidence given before 
the judge at Lancaster. Of the witches, Goody Dickison, 
Mal Spencer, Mother Hargrave, Granny Johnson, Meg, Mawd, 
are actual individuals who were accused by Robinson; Mrs. 
Generous alone is the poet’s fiction. When Robin, the blunt 
serving-man, refuses to saddle the grey gelding she shakes 
a bridle over his head and using him as a horse makes him 
carry her to the satanical assembly. There is a mill, which 
is haunted by spirits in the shape of cats, and here a soldier 
undertakes to watch. For two nights he is undisturbed, but 
on the third “‘ Enter Mrs. Generous, Mal, all the Witches and 
their Spirits (at severall dores).” ‘* The Spirits come about him 
with a dreadfull noise,’ but he beats them thence with his 
sword, lopping off a tabby’s paw in the hurly-burly. In the 
morning a hand is found, white and shapely, with jewels on 
the fingers. These Generous recognizes as being his wife’s 
rings, and Mrs. Generous, who is in bed ill, is found to have 
one hand cut off at the wrist. This seals her fate. All the 
witches are dragged in and in spite of their charms and 
bug-words are identified by several witnesses including the 
boy who “saw them all in the barne together, and many 
more, at their feast and witchery.” 

The play was evidently produced just after the Lancaster 
Assizes, whilst four of the accused were in the Fleet prison, 
London, for further examination, and the King’s pardon had 
not as yet been pronounced. This is evident from the 
Epilogue, which commences : 


Now while the witches must expect their due, 
By lawfull justice, we appeale to you 

For favourable censure ; what their crime 
May bring upon ’em ripens yet of time 

Has not reveal’d. Perhaps great mercy may, 
After just condemnation, give them day 

Of longer life. 


296 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


It will be convenient to consider in this connexion a drama 
largely founded upon Heywood and Brome, and produced 
nearly half a century later at the Duke’s House, Dorset 
Garden, Shadwell’s The Lancashire Witches and Teague o 
Divelly, the Irish Priest, which was first seen in the autumn 
of 1681 (probably in September). The idea of using magic in 
a play was obviously suggested to Shadwell by his idolized 
Ben Jonson’s Masque of Queens, performed at Whitehall, 
2 February, 1609. In close imitation of his model Shadwell 
has further appended copious notes to Acts one, two, three, 
and five, giving his references for the details of his enchant- 
ments. In the Preface (4to, 1682) he naively confesses : 
‘* For the magical part I had no hopes of equalling Shakespear 
in fancy, who created his witchcraft for the most part out 
of his own imagination (in which faculty no man ever 
excell’d him), and therefore I resolved to take mine from 
authority. And to that end there is not one action in the 
Play, nay, scarce a word concerning it, but is borrowed from 
some antient, or modern witchmonger. Which you will find 
in the notes, wherein I have presented you a great part of 
the doctrine of witchcraft, believe it who will.’? And he has 
indeed copious citations from Vergil, Horace, Ovid, Pro- 
pertius, Juvenal, Tibullus, Seneca, Tacitus, Lucan, Petronius, 
Pliny, Apuleius, Aristotle, Theocritus, Lucian, Theophrastus ; 
S. Augustine, S. Thomas Aquinas; Baptista Porta; Ben 
Jonson (The Sad Shepherd); from the Malleus Maleficarum of 
James Sprenger, O.P., and Henry Institor (Heinrich Kramer), 
written circa 1485-89, from Jean Bodin’s (1520-96) La 
Demonomanie des Sorciers, 1580; the Daemonolatria, 1595, 
of Nicolas Remy; Disquisitionum Magicarum libri six of 
Martin Delrio, 8.J. (1551-1608) ; Historia Rerum Scoticarum, 
Paris, 1527, of Hector Boece (1465-1536); Formicarius, 
5 vols., Douai, 1602, of John Nider, O.P. (1880-1488) ; De 
Prestigiis Demonum, 1563, by the celebrated John Weyer, 
physician to the Duke of Cleves; De Gentibus Septentriona- 
libus,1* Rome, 1555, by Olaus Magnus, the famous Archbishop 
of Upsala; Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584, by Reginald 
Scot; Daemonomagia, by Philip Ludwig Elich, 1607; De 
Strigimagis, by Sylvester Mazzolini, O.P. (1460-1523), Master 
of the Sacred Palace and champion of the Holy See against 
the heresiarch Luther; Compendium Maleficarum (Milan, 


WITCH IN DRAMATIC LITERATURE 297 


1608), by Francesco Maria Guazzo of the Congregation of 
S. Ambrose; Disputatio de Magis (Frankfort, 1584), by 
Johan Georg Godelmann; Tractatus de Strigtis et Lamiis 
of Bartolommeo Spina, O.P.; the Decretum (about 1020) of 
Burchard, Bishop of Worms ; the De Sortilegiis (Lyons, 1533) 
of Paolo Grilland; the De Occulta Philosophia (Antwerp, 
1531) of Cornelius Agrippa; the Apologie pour tous les Grands 
Hommes qui ont este faussement supconnez de Magie (1625) of 
Gabriel Naudé, librarian to Cardinal Mazarin; De Subtilitate 
(libri XXI, Nuremberg, 1550) of Girolamo Cardano, the 
famous physician and astrologer; De magna et occulta 
Philosophia of Paracelsus; IIII Livres des Spectres (Angers, 
1586) by Pierre le Loyer, Sieur de Brosse, of which Shadwell 
used the English version (1605) A treatise of Specters ... 
translated by Z. Jones. 

It will be seen that no less than forty-one authors, authori- 
ties on magic, are quoted by Shadwell in these notes, whilst 
not infrequently the same author is cited again and again, 
and extracts of some length, not merely general references, 
are given. 

But for all this parade of learning, perchance because of 
all this parade of learning, Shadwell’s witch scenes are 
intolerably clumsy, they are gross without being terrible. 
Shadwell was a clever dramatist, he was able to draw a 
character, especially a crank, with quite remarkable vigour, 
and his scenes are a triumph of photographic realism. True, 
he could not discriminate and select; he threw his world 
en masse higgledy piggledy on to the stage, and as even in 
the reign of the Merry Monarch there were a few tedious folk 
about, so now and again—but not very often—one chances 
upon heavy passages in Shadwell’s robust comedies. On the 
other hand The Sullen Lovers, Epsom Wells, The Virtuoso, 
Bury Fair, The Squire of Alsatia, The Volunteers, in fact all 
his native plays, are full of bustle and fun, albeit a trifle 
riotous and rude as the custom was. Dryden, who very well 
knew what he was about, for purposes of his own cleverly 
dubbed Shadwell dull. And dull he has been dubbed ever 
since by those who have not read him. But Shadwell had 
not a spark of poetry in his whole fat composition. And so 
his witches become farcical, yet farcical in a grimy unpleasant 
way, for we are spared none of the loathsome details of the 


298 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


Sabbat, and should anyone object, why, there is the authority 
of Remy or Guazzo, the precise passage from Prierias or 
Burchard to support the author. Indeed we feel that these 
witches are very real in spite of their materialism. They 
present a clear picture of one side of the diabolic cult, how- 
ever crude and crass. 

Even so, these incantation scenes are not, I venture to 
think, the worst thing in the play. The obscene caricature 
of the Catholic priest, Teague o Divelly, is frankly disgusting 
beyond words. He is represented as ignorant, idle, lecherous, 
a liar, a coward, a buffoon, too simiously cunning to be a 
fool, too basely mean to be a villain. It is a filthy piece of 
work, malignant and harmful prepense.'* 

But Shadwell showed scant respect for the Protestants 
too, since Smerk, Sir Edward Hartfort’s chaplain, is described 
as ‘‘ foolish, knavish, popish, arrogant, insolent ; yet for his 
interest, slavish.” 

It is hardly a matter for surprise that after the play had been 
in the actors’ hands about a fortnight complaints from such 
high quarters were lodged with Charles Killigrew, the Master 
of the Revels, that he promptly sent for the script, which at 
first he seems to have passed carelessly enough, and would 
only allow the rehearsals to proceed on condition that a 
quantity of scurrilous matter was expunged. Even so the 
dialogue is sufficiently offensive and profane. There was some- 
thing like a riot in the theatre at the first performance, and the 
play was as heartily hissed as it deserved. Yet it managed 
to make a stand: those were the days of the Third Ex- 
clusion Bill and rank disloyalty, but the tide was on the turn, 
a rebel Parliament had been dissolved on the 28th March, 
on the 31st of August Stephen College, a perjured fanatic 
doubly dyed in treason and every conceivable rascality, had 
met his just reward on the gallows, whilst the atrocious 
Shaftesbury himself was to be smartly laid by the heels in 
the November following. That part of the dialogue which 
was not allowed to be spoken on the stage Shadwell has 
printed in italic letter,!> and so we plainly see that the censor 
was amply justified in his demands. The political satire is 
of the muddiest; the railing against the Church is lewd 
and rancorous. 

Such success as The Lancashire Witches had in the theatre— 


WITCH IN DRAMATIC LITERATURE 299 


and it was not infrequently revived—was wholly due to the 
mechanist and the scenic effects, the “flyings’’ of the 
witches, and the music, this last so prominent a feature that 
Downes does not hesitate to call it “‘ a kind of Opera.” 

In Shadwell’s Sabbat scenes the Devil himself appears, 
once in the form of a Buck Goat and once in human shape, 
whilst his satellites adore him with disgusting ceremonies. 
The witches are Mother Demdike, Mother Dickenson, Mother 
Hargrave, Mal Spencer, Madge, and others unnamed. 

Elizabeth Demdike and Jennet Hargreaves belonged to 
the first Lancashire witch-trials, the prosecutions of 1612 ; 
Frances Dickenson and Mal Spencer were involved in the 
Robinson disclosures of 1633; so it is obvious that Shadwell 
has intermingled the two incidents. In his play we have a 
coursing scene where the hare suddenly changes to Mother 
Demdike; the witches raise a storm and carouse in Sir 
Edward’s cellar something after the fashion of Madge Gray, 
Goody Price, and Goody Jones in The Ingoldsby Legends ; 
Mal Spencer bridles Clod, a country yokel, and rides him to 
a witches’ festival, where Madge is admitted to the infernal 
sisterhood ; the witches in the guise of cats beset.a number 
of persons with horrible scratchings and miauling, Tom 
Shacklehead strikes off a grimalkin’s paw and Mother 
Hargreave’s hand is found to be missing: ‘“‘ the cutting off 
the hand is an old story,” says Shadwell in his notes. It 
will be seen that the later dramatist took many of his 
incidents from Heywood and Brome, although it is only fair 
to add that he has also largely drawn from original sources. 

Shortly after the Restoration was published a play dealing 
with one of the most famous of English sibyls, The Life of 
Mother Shipton. ‘‘ A New Comedy. As it was Acted Nine- 
teen dayes together with great Applause. . . . Written by 
T[homas]T[homson].’” Among the Dramatis Persone appear 
Pluto, the King of Hell, with Proserpina, his Queen ; 
Radamon, A chief Spirit; Four other Devils. The scene is 
‘“The City of York, or Naseborough Grove in Yorkshire.”’ 
It is a rough piece of work, largely patched together from 
Middleton’s A Chaste Maid in Cheapside and Massinger’s 
The City Madam, whilst the episodes in which Mother Shipton 
is concerned would seem to be founded on one of the many 
old chap-books that relate her marvellous adventures and 


300 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


prophetic skill. Agatha Shipton (her name is usually given 
as Ursula) is complaining of her hard lot when she encounters 
Radamon, a demon who holds high rank in the court of Dis. 
He arranges to meet her later, and returns to his own place 
to boast of his success. He reappears to her dressed as a 
wealthy nobleman; he marries her; and for a while she 
is seen in great affluence and state. At the commencement 
of Act III she finds herself in her poor cottage again. As 
she laments Radamon enters, he informs her who he really 
is, and bestows upon her magical powers. Her fame spreads 
far and wide, and as popular story tells, the abbot of Beverley 
in disguise visits her to make trial of her art. She at once 
recognizes him, and foretells to his great chagrin the sup- 
pression of the monasteries with other events. In the end 
Mother Shipton outwits and discomforts the devils who 
attempt to seize her, she is vouchsafed a heavenly vision, 
and turns to penitence and prayer. The whole thing is a 
crude enough commixture, of more curiosity than value. 
There are some well-written episodes in Nevil Payne’s 
powerful tragedy The Fatal Jealousie,1® produced at Dorset 
Garden early in August, 1672. Among the characters we 
have Witch, Aunt of Jasper, the villain of the piece. Jasper, 
who is servant to Antonio, applies to his aunt to help him 
in his malignant schemes. At first he believes she is a 
genuine sorceress, but she disabuses him and frankly 


acknowledges 
I can raise no Devils, 

Yet I Confederate with Rogues and Taylors, 

Things that can shape themselves like Elves, 

And Goblins 


Her imps Ranter and Swash, Dive, Fop, Snap, Gilt, and Pick- 
lock, are slim lads in masquing habits, trained to trickery. 
None the less they manage an incantation scene to deceive 
Antonio and persuade him that his wife, Caelia, is false. An 
‘“¢ Antick Dance of Devils”? which follows is interrupted by the 
forcible entry of the Watch. The Aunt shows Jasper a secret 
hiding-place, whereupon he murders her and conceals the body 
in the hole. He pretends that she was in truth a witch and 
has vanished by magic. The Captain of the Watch, however, 
had detected her charlatanry long before, and presently a 
demon’s vizor and a domino are found on the premises. 





WITCH IN DRAMATIC LITERATURE 301 


Later a little boy, who is caught in his devil’s attire, confesses 
the impostures, and trembling adds that in one of their 
secret chambers they have discovered their mistress’s corpse 
stabbed to death. Finally Jasper is unmasked, and only 
escapes condign punishment by his dagger. The character 
of the Witch is not unlike that of Heywood’s Wise Woman 
of Hogsdon, although in The Fatal Jealousie the events take 
a tragic and bloody turn. Smith acted Antonio; Mrs. 
Shadwell, Caelia; Mrs. Norris, the Witch; and Sandford was 
famous in the role of Jasper. 

There are incantation scenes in Dryden’s tragedies, but 
these hardly come within our survey, as the magicians are 
treated romantically, one might even say decoratively, and 
certainly here no touch of realism is sought or intended. We 
have the famous episode in The Indian-Queen (produced at 
the Theatre Royal in January, 1663-4), when Zempoalla 
seeks Ismeron the prophet who raises the God of Dreams to 
prophesy her destiny ;!7 in the fourth act of Tyrannick Love 
(Theatre Royal, June, 1669), the scene is an Indian cave, 
where at the instigation of Placidius the magician Nigrinus 
raises a vision of the sleeping S. Catharine, various astral 
spirits appear only to fly before the descent of Amariel, the 
Saint’s Guardian-Angel; in Cdipus, by Dryden and Lee 
(Dorset Garden, December, 1678), Teresias plays a consider- 
able part, and Act III is mainly concerned with a necromantic 
spell that raises the ghost of Laius in the depths of a hallowed 
grove. In The Duke of Guise, moreover (Theatre Royal, 
December, 1682), there is something of real horror in the 
figures of Malicorne and his familiar Melanax, and the scene?® 
when the miserable wizard, whose bond is forfeit, is carried 
shrieking to endless bale, cannot be read without a shudder 
even after the last moments of Marlowe’s Faustus. Act IV 
of Lee’s Sophonisba (Theatre Royal, April, 1675) commences 
with the temple of Bellona, whose priestesses are shown at 
their dread rites. Cumana is inspired by the divinity, she 
raves in fury of obsession, there is a dance of spirits, and 
various visions are evoked. 

In Otway’s curious rehandling of Romeo and Juliet which 
he Latinized as The History and Fall of Caius Marius 
produced at Dorset Garden in the autumn of 1679, the Syrian 
witch Martha only appears for a moment to prophesy good 


302 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


fortune to Marius and to introduce a dance of spirits by the © 
waving of her wand. 

Charles Davenant’s operatic Circe (Dorset Garden, March, 
1676-7) is an amazing distortion of mythological story. 
There are songs without number, a dance of magicians, 
storms, dreams, an apparition of Pluto in a Chariot drawn 
by Black Horses, but all these are very much of the stage, 
stagey, born of candle-light and violins, hardly to be endured 
in cold print. Ragusa, the Sorceress in Tate’s Brutus of Alba : 
or the Enchanted Lovers (Dorset Garden, May, 1678) is a far 
more formidable figure. Tate has managed his magic not 
without skill, and the conclusion of Act III, an incantation, 
was deservedly praised by Lamb. Curiously enough the plot 
of Brutus of Alba is the story of Dido and Aeneas, Vergil’s 
names being altered ‘‘ rather than be guilty of a breach of 
Modesty,” Tate says. But Tate supplied Henry Purcell with 
the libretto for his opera Dido and Aeneas, wherein also 
witches appear. It must not be forgotten that Macbeth was 
immensely popular throughout the whole of the Restoration 
period, when, as has been noted above, the witch scenes were 
elaborated and presented with every resource of scenery, 
mechanism, dance, song, and meretricious ornament. Revival 
followed revival, each more decorative than the last, and the 
theatre was unceasingly thronged. Duffett undertook to 
burlesque this fashion, which he did in an extraordinary 
Epilogue to his skit The Empress of Morocco, produced at 
the Theatre Royal in the spring of 1674, but for all his 
japeries Macbeth never waned in public favour. 

Spirits in abundance appear in the Earl of Orrery’s 
unpublished tragedy Zoroastres,'® the principal character 
being described as ‘‘ King of Persia, the first Magician.” 
He is attended by ‘‘ several spirits in black with ghastly 
vizards,” and at the end furies and demons arise shaking 
dark torches at the monarch whom they pull down to hell, 
the sky raining fire upon them. It was almost certainly never 
acted, and is the wildest type of transpontine melodrama. 

Edward Ravenscroft’s ‘‘ recantation play ’? Dame Dobson, 
or, The Cunning Woman (produced at Dorset Garden in the 
early autumn of 1688) is an English version of La Devineresse ; 
ou les faux Enchantements (sometimes known as Madame 
Jobin), a capital comedy by Thomas Corneille and Jean 


WITCH IN DRAMATIC LITERATURE 308 


Donneau de Vise. This French original had been produced 
in 1679, and both the stage-craft and the adroit way in which 
the various tricks and conjurations are managed must be 
allowed to be consummately clever. An English comedy 
on a similar theme is The Wise Woman of Hogsdon, the 
intricacies of which are a triumph of technique. La Devin- 
eresse was published in 1680 with a frontispiece picturing 
a grimalkin, a hand of glory, noxious weeds, two blazing 
torches and other objects beloved of necromancy. There 
are, moreover, eight folding plates which embellish the little 
book, and these have no small interest as they depict scenes 
in the comedy. But Dame Dobson cannot be accounted a 
play of witchcraft; it is no more than an amusing study of 
dextrous charlatanry. The protagonist herself?® is of that 
immortal sisterhood graced by Heywood’s sibyl, of whom 
it is said ‘‘ She is a cunning woman, neither hath she her 
name for nothing, who out of her ignorance can fool so many 
that think themselves wise.” 

Mrs. Behn, in her amusing comedy The Luckey Chance ; 
or, An Alderman’s Bargain, produced at Drury Lane in the 
. late winter of 1686, 4to, 1687, has made some play with 
pretended magic in the capital scenes where Gayman 
(Betterton) is secretly brought by the prentice Bredwel 
(Bowman), disguised as a devil, to the house of Lady Fulbank 
(Mrs. Barry). Here he is received by Pert, the maid, who 
is dressed as an old witch, and conducted to his inamorata’s 
embraces. But the whole episode is somewhat farcically 
treated, and it is, of course, an elaborate masquerade for 
the sake of an intrigue.”# 

Shadwell in 1681 took Witchcraft seriously, and notwith- 
standing the half-hearted disclaimer in his address ‘‘ To the 
Reader ”’ that prefaces The Lancashire Witches I think he 
was sensible enough to recognize the truth which lies at the 
core of the matter in spite of the grotesqueness of the 
formule and spells doting hags and warlocks are wont to 
employ. Witchcraft was still a capital offence when some 
fifteen years later Congreve lightly laughed it out of court. 
Foresight (Love for Love), ‘‘ an illiterate old Fellow, peevish 
and positive, superstitious, and pretending to understand 
Astrology, Palmistry, Phisiognomy, Omens, Dreams, etc.,’’ is 
in close confabulation with his young daughter’s Nurse, when 


304 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


Angelica his niece trips in to ask the loan of his coach, her 
own being out of order. He says no, and presses her to 
remain at home, muttering to himself some old doggerel 
which bodes no good to the house if all the womenfolk are 
gadding abroad. The lady fleers him, twits him with jealousy 


of his young wife: ‘“‘ Uncle, I’m afraid you are not Lord of 
the Ascendant, ha! ha! hal’ He is obstinate in his 
refusal; and she retorts: ‘‘I can make Oath of your 


unlawful Midnight Practices ; you and the Old Nurse there. 
. . . Lsaw you together, through the Key-hole of the Closet, 
one Night, like Saul and the Witch of Endor, turning the 
Sieve and Sheers, and pricking your Thumbs to write poor 
innocent Servants’ Names in Blood about a little Nutmeg- 
Grater, which she had forgot in the Caudle-Cup.”’ “ Hussy, 
Cockatrice,”’ storms the old fellow beside himself with rage. 
Angelica mocks him even more bitterly, accuses him and the 
Nurse of nourishing a familiar, ‘‘ a young Devil in the shape 
of a Tabby-Cat,” and with a few last thrusts she departs, 
trilling with merriment, in a sedan-chair. 

To return for a brief space to an earlier generation when 
it would have hardly been possible, or at least highly in- 
advisable, to treat Witchcraft in this blithesome mood, of 
two plays that would almost certainly have been of great 
interest in this connexion we have only the names, The Witch 
of Islington, acted in 1597, and The Witch Traveller, licensed 
in 1628. 

In addition to The Masque of Queens, which as has already 
been noted, served to some extent for a model to Shadwell 
when inditing his encyclopedic notes on magic, Ben Jonson 
in that sweet pastoral The Sad Shepherd introduces a Scotch 
witch, Maudlin. The character is drawn with vigorous 
strokes ; realism mingles with romance. 

During the quarrel scene which opens The Alchemist Face 
threatens Subtle : 

I’ll bring thee, rogue, within 
The statute of sorcerie, tricesimo tertvo 
Of Harry the Eight. 

Dapper the gull asks Subtle for a familiar, as Face ex- 
plains (I, 2): 

Why, he do’s aske one but for cups, and horses, 
A rifling flye: none o’ your great familiars. 


WITCH IN DRAMATIC LITERATURE 305 


And later in order to trick him thoroughly Dol Common 
appears as the ‘* Queene of Faerie.’”’ The Queen of Elphin 
or Elfhame, who is particularly mentioned in the Scotch 
witch-trials, seems to be identical with the French Reine du 
Sabbat. In 1670 Jean Weir confessed: ‘‘ That when she 
keeped a school at Dalkeith, and teached childering, ane tall 
woman came to the declarant’s hous when the childering 
were there ; and that she had, as appeared to her, ane chyld 
upon her back, and one or two at her foot; and that the 
said woman disyred that the declarant should imploy her to 
spick for her to the Queen of Farie, and strik and battle in 
her behalf with the said Queen, (which was her own words).’’?? 

Beaumont and Fletcher afford us but few instances of 
witchcraft in the many dramas that conveniently go under 
their names. We have, it is true, a she-devil, Lucifera, in 
The Prophetess, but the incident is little better than clown- 
ing. Delphia herself is a severely classical pythoness far 
removed from the Sawyers, Demdikes, and Dickensons 
Sulpitia, in The Custom of the County dons a conjurer’s robe 
and at Hippolita’s bidding blasts Zenocia almost to death 
by her spells, but yet she is more bawd than witch. Peter 
Vecchio in The Chances, ‘‘a reputed wizard,” is as sharp 
and cozening a practitioner as Forobosco, the mountebank, 
a petty pilferer, who is exposed and sent to the galleys at 
the end of The Fair Maid of the Inn; or Shirley’s Doctor 
Sharkino?? whom silly serving-men consult about the loss 
of silver spoons and napkins; or Tomkis’s Albumazar; nay, 
Jonson’s Subtle himself.?4 

In Marston’s Sophonisba (4to, 1606) appears Erictho, 
borrowed from Lucan. The Friar in Chapman’s Bassy 
d Ambois (4to, 1607) puts on a magician’s habit, and after a 
sonorous Latin invocation raises the spirits Behemoth and 
Cartophylax in the presence of Bussy and Tamyra, 

A far more interesting drama than these is Shirley’s 
S. Patrick for Ireland, acted in Dublin, 1639-40, which has 
as its theme the conversion of Ireland by S. Patrick and the 
opposition of the Druids under their leader Archimagus. 
The character of S. Patrick moves throughout with a quiet 
spiritual dignity that has true beauty, and the magicians in 
their baffled potency for evil are only less effective. This 
drama is a work of stirling merit, to which I would unhesita- 

X 


306 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


tingly assign a very high place in Shirley’s theatre. We are 
shown the various attempts upon S. Patrick’s life: poison 
is administered in a cup of wine, the Saint drinks and 
remains unharmed; Milcho, a great officer, whose servant 
S. Patrick once was, locks him and his friends in a house and 
fires it. The Christians pass out unscathed through the 
flames which devour the incendiary. In the last scene whilst 
S. Patrick sleeps Archimagus summons a vast number of 
hideous serpents to devour him, but the Apostle of Ireland 
wakes, and expels for ever all venomous reptiles from his 
isle, whereon the earth gapes and swallows the warlock alive. 
Particularly impressive is the arrival of 5. Patrick, when as 
the King and his two sons, his druids and nobles, are gathered 
in anxious consultation at the gates of their temple, they 
see passing in solemn procession through the woods a fair 
company with gleaming crosses, silken banners, bright tapers 
and incense, what time the sweet music of a hymn strikes 
upon the ear: 


_ Post maris seeui fremitus Jernee 
(Nauitas coelo tremulas beante) 
Uidimus gratum iubar,enatantes 

Littus inaurans. 


(Now that we have crossed the fierce waves of ocean to 
Ireland’s coast, and Heaven has blessed its poor fearful 
wanderers, wending our way along with joy do we see a 
sunbeam of light gilding these shores.) 

As Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus has already been treated in this 
connexion it may not be altogether impertinent very briefly 
to consider some three or four other Elizabethan plays in 
which the Devil appears among the Dramatis Persone, even 
if he act no very prominent part. These for the most part 
fluctuate between the semi-serious and merest buffoonery. 
Thus the prologue of The Merry Devil of Edmonton (4to, 
1608), in which the enchanter Peter Fabell tricks the demon 
who has come to demand the fulfilment of his contract, is 
at the opening managed with due decorum, but it soon 
adopts a lighter, and even trivial, vein. William Rowley’s 
The Birth of Merlin, or The Childe hath found his Father (not 
printed until 1662) is a curious medley of farce and romance, 
informed with a certain awkward vigour and not wholly 
destitute of poetry. Dekker’s If it. be not good, the Divel 1s 


WITCH IN DRAMATIC LITERATURE 307 


in ut (4to, 1612), which may be traced to the old prose History 
of Friar Rush, depicts the exploits of three lesser fiends who 
are dispatched to spread their master’s kingdom in Naples. 
It is an unequal play, the satire of which falls very flat, 
since it is obvious that the poet was not sincere in his 
extravagant theme.?® 

Ben Jonson’s The Devil is an Ass, acted in 1616, is wholly 
comic. Pug, “‘the less devil,’? who visits the earth, and 
engages himself as servant to a Norfolk squire, Fabian 
Fitzdottrel, is hopelessly outwitted on every occasion by the 
cunning of mere mortals. Eventually he finds himself lodged 
in Newgate, and in imminent danger of the gallows were he 
not rescued by the Vice, Iniquity, by whom he is carried 
off rejoicing to the nether regions. His fate may be compared 
with that of Roderigo in Wilson’s excellent comedy Belphegor : 
or, The Marriage of the Devil (produced at Dorset Garden in 
the summer of 1690), who with his two attendant devils 
flies back to his native hell to escape the woes of earth. 

In The Devil’s Charter, however, by Barnaby Barnes (1607), 
we have what is undoubtedly a perfectly serious tragedy, 
which if not exactly modelled upon, at least owes many hints 
to Marlowe’s Faustus. It is flamboyant melodrama and 
wildly unhistorical throughout, a very tophet of infernal 
horror. The chief character is a loathsome caricature of 
Pope Alexander VI,?° and, as we might expect, all the lies 
and libels of Renaissance satirists and Protestant pam- 
phleteers are heaped together to portray an impossible 
monster of lust and crime. The filthiest seandals of Burchard, 
Sanudo, Giustiniani, Filippo Nerli, Guicciardini, Paolo Giovio, 
Sannazzaro and the Neapolitans, have been employed with 
one might almost say a scrupulous conscientiousness. The 
black art, in particular, occupies a very prominent place in 
these lurid scenes. Alexander has signed a bond with a 
demon Astaroth, and it is to this contract that all his success 
is ascribed. In Act IV there is a long incantation when the 
Pope puts on his magical robes, takes his rod and pentacle, 
and standing within the circle he has traced conjures in 
strange terms, commencing a Latin exorcism which tails off 
into mere gibberish. Various devils appear, and he is shown 
a vision of Gandia’s murder by Cesar,?? with other atrocities. 
At the climax of the piece we have the banquet with Cardinal 


308 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


Adrian of Corneto, and whilst the guests talk “‘ The Devill 
commeth and changeth the Popes bottles.” The Borgias 
are poisoned, and in a far too protracted ‘‘ Scena Ultima ” 
Alexander discourses and disputes frantically with the demons 
who appear to mock and torment him. There is the old 
device of an ambiguous contract; presently a “* Devil like 
a Poast’’ enters winding a horn to summon the unhappy 
wretch, who raves and shrieks out meaningless ejaculations 
as he is dragged away amid thunder and lightning. This 
sort of thing pandered to the most brutalized appetites of 
the groundlings, and The Devil’s Charter may be summed up 
as a disgusting burlesque not without its quota of vile stuff 
that is so repulsive as to be physically sickening. 

Upon a careful consideration of those seventeenth-century 
plays which have Witchcraft as their main theme, and leaving 
on one side, for our purpose, the essentially romantic treat- 
ment of the subject, however realistic some details of the 
picture may be, it is, I think, beyond dispute that The Watch 
of Edmonton in the figure of Mother Sawyer offers us the 
best contemporary illustration of the Elizabethan witch. 
The drama itself is one of no ordinary merit and power, 
whilst the understanding and restraint which set the play 
apart from its fellows also raises it to the level of genuine 
tragedy. It should be noticed that we see a witch, so to 
speak, in the process of making. Mother Sawyer is in truth 
the victim of the prejudices of the village hinds and ignorant 
yokels. When she first appears it is merely as a poor old 
crone driven to desperation by her brutal neighbours; the 
farmers declare she is a witch, and at length persecution 
makes her one. She is malignant and evil enough once the 
compact with the demon has been confirmed; she longs 
from the first to be revenged upon her enemies and mutters 
to herself ‘‘ by what art May the thing called Familiar be 
purchased ?’’ But, in one sense, she is urged and hounded 
to her destiny, and the authors, although never doubting her 
compact with the powers of darkness, her vile and poisonous 
life, show a detached but very real sympathy for her. It is 
this touch of humanity, the pathos and pity of the poor old 
hag, repulsive, wicked, and baleful as she may be, which 
must place The Witch of Edmonton in my opinion among the 
greatest and most moving of all Elizabethan plays. 


WITCH IN DRAMATIC LITERATURE 309 


It is no pleasant task to turn now to the theatre of the 
eighteenth century in this connexion. The witch became 
degraded; she was comic, burlesqued, buffooned ; a mere 
property for a Christmas pantomime: Harlequin Mother 
Bunch, Mother Goose, Harlequin Dame Trot, Charles Dibdin’s 
The Lancashire Witches, or The Distresses of Harlequin?® 
whose tinsel, music, and mummery drew all the macaronis 
and cyprians in London to the Circus during the winter 
of 1782-3. 

Some subtle premonition of the great success of Harrison 
Ainsworth’s powerful story The Lancashire Witches—for this 
and the macabre Rookwood are probably the best of the work 
of a talented writer now unduly depreciated and decried— 
seems to have suggested to the prolific Edward Fitzball his 
‘Legendary Drama in Three Acts,” The Lancashire Witches, 
A Romance of Pendle Forest, produced at the Adelphi Theatre, 
3 January, 1848. It was quick work, for it was only a month 
before, 8 December, 1847, that Ainsworth, writing to his 
friend Crossley of Manchester, states that he has accepted | 
the liberal offer of the Sunday Times—£1000 and the copy- 
right to revert to the author on the completion of the work— 
that his new romance The Lancashire Witches should make 
its appearance as a serial in the paper. He had already 
sketched out the plan, and he must have given Fitzball an 
idea of this, or at least have allowed the dramatist the use 
of some few rough notes, for although the play and the novel 
have little, one might say nothing essential, in common, 
the chief character in the theatre, Bess of the Woods, * 140 
years old, formerly Abbess of 5. Magdalen’s, doomed for her 
crimes to an unearthly age,” is none other than the anchoress 
Isolde de Heton.2® The fourth scene of the second act 
presents the ruins of Whalley Abbey by moonlight. During 
an incantation the picture gradually changes; the broken 
arches form themselves into perfect masonry; the ivy 
disappears from the windows to show the ruby and gold of 
coloured glass; the decaying altar glitters with piled plate 
and the gleam of myriad tapers. A choir of nuns rises from 
the grave to dance with spectral gallants. Among the 
votaries are Nutter, Demdike, and Chattox “‘ Three Weird 
Sisters, doomed for their frailties to become Witches.” But 
they utter no word, and have no part save this in the action, 


310 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


This scene must have proved extraordinarily effective upon 
the stage. It owes much to the haunted convent in Meyer- 
beer’s Robert le Diable, produced at the Académie Royale in 
November, 18381, and given in a piratical form both at Drury 
Lane and Covent Garden within a few weeks. Nor is it 
comparable to its original. In Fitzball’s melodrama O. Smith 
appeared as Gipsy Dallan, a new character ; and Miss Faucit 
(Mrs. Bland) as Bess of the Woods. The play, for what it is, 
a luridly theatrical and Surrey-side sensation, has merit ; 
but to speak of it in the same breath as Middleton or even 
as Barnes would be absurd. 

Shelley’s genius has with wondrous beauty translated for 
us scenes from Calderon’s El Magico Prodigioso, one of the 
loveliest songs of the Spanish nightingale. On another plane, 
admittedly, but yet, I think, far from lacking a simple 
comeliness of its own and surely not without most poignant 
pathos, is Longfellow’s New England Tragedy Giles Corey 
of the Salem Farms.®*° The honest sincerity of Cotton Mather, 
the bluff irascible heartiness of Corey himself, the inopportune 
scepticism of his wife—which to many would seem sound 
common sense—the hysteria of Mary Walcot, the villainy 
of John Gloyd, all these are sketched with extraordinary 
power, a few quiet telling touches which make each character, 
individual, alert, alive. 

In the French theatre we have an early fourteenth-century 
Miracle de Nostre Dame de Robert le Dyable, and in 1505 was 
acted Le mystére du Chevalier qui donna sa femme au Diable, 
& dix personnages. As one might well expect during the 
long classical period of the drama Witchcraft could have 
found no place in the scenes of the French dramatists. It 
would have been altogether too wild, too monstrous a fantasy. 
And so it is not until the 24 floréal, An XIII (11 June, 1805) 
that a play which interweaves sorcery as its theme is seen 
at the Théatre francais, when Les Templiers of Raynouard 
was given there. A few years later Le Vampire, a thrilling 
melodrama by Charles Nodier and Carmouche, produced on 
13 August, 1820, was to draw all idle Paris to the Porte- 
Saint-Martin. In 1821 two facile writers quick to gauge the 
public appetite, Frédéric Dupetit-Méré and Victor Ducagne, 
found some favour with La Sorciére, ou VOrphelin écossais. 
Alexandre Dumas, and one of his many ghosts Auguste 


WITCH IN DRAMATIC LITERATURE 311 


Maquet, collaborated (if one may use the term) in a grandiose 
five-act drama Urbain Grandier, 1850. La Sorciére Canidie, 
a one-act play by Aurélien Vivie, produced at Bordeaux in 
1888 is of little account. La Reine de Esprit (1891) of 
Maurice Pottecher is founded to some extent on the Comte 
de Gabalis, whilst the same author’s three-act Chacun cherche 
son Trésor, ‘histoire des sorciers ”’ (1899) was not a little 
helped by the music of Lucien Michelet. There are many 
excuses for passing over with a mere mention Les Noces de 
Sathan (1892), a ‘‘drama ésoterique,” by Jules Bois, and 
Les Basques ou la Sorciére d’Espelette, a lyric drama in three 
acts by Loquin and Mégret de Belligny, produced at 
Bordeaux in 1892, has an interest which is almost purely 
local. Alphonse Tavan’s Les Mases (sorciers), a legendary 
drama of five acts of alternating prose and verse seen in 1897 
was helped out by every theatrical resource, a ballet, chorus, 
mechanical effects, and confident advertisement. Serge 
Basset’s Vers le Sabbat ‘‘ évocation de sorcellerie en un acte”’ 
which appeared in the same year need not be seriously — 
considered. Nor does an elaborate episode ‘‘ Le Sabbat et 
la Herse Infernale,” wherein Mons. Benglia appeared as 
Satan, that was seen in the Folies Bergére revue, Un Soir 
de Folie, 1925-6, call for more than the briefest passing 
mention. 

In more recent days Victor Sardou’s La Sorciére is a 
violent, but effective, melodrama. Produced at the Théatre 
Sarah-Bernhardt, 15 December, 19038, with De Max as 
Cardinal Ximenes and Sarah Bernhardt as the moresque 
Zoraya, it obtained a not undeserved success. The locale 
of the tragedy is Toledo, anno domini 1506; Act IV, the 
Inquisition scene; and Act V, the square before the Cathedral 
with the grim pyre ready for the torch, were—owing to the 
genius of a great actress—truly harrowing. Of course it is 
very flamboyant, very unbalanced, very unhistorical, but 
in its gaudy theatrical way—all the old tricks are there— 
La Sorciére had an exciting thrill for those who were content 
to be unsophisticated awhile. 

John Masefield’s adaptation from the Norwegian of Wiers- 
Jennsen, The Witch,?1.a drama in four acts, is a very different 
thing. Here we have psychology comparable to that of 
Dekker and Ford. Nor will the performances of Miss Janet 


312 THE HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT 


Achurch as Merete Beyer and Miss Lillah McCarthy as Anne 
Pedersdotter easily be forgotten. As a picture of the horror 
of Witchcraft in cold Scandinavia, the gloom and depression 
of formidable fanaticism engendered by Lutheran dogma 
and discipline with the shadow of destiny lowering implacably 
over all, this is probably the finest piece of work dealing in 
domestic fashion with the warlock and the sorceress that 
has been seen on the English stage since the reign of wise 
King James three hundred years ago. 


NOTES TO CHAPTER VII 


1 The Floralia, the most wanton of Roman festivals, commenced on the 
fourth day before the Kalends of May, and during these celebrations the 
spectators insisted that the mime should play naked, ‘‘ agebantur [Floralia] 
a meretricibus ueste exutis omni cum uerborum licentia, motuumque_ 
obsceenitate,’’ says the old commentator on Martial I, 1. ‘‘ Lasciui Floralia 
laeta theatri’’ Ausonius names them, De Feriis Romanis, 25. Lactantius, De 
Institutionibus Diuinis, I, 20, writes: ‘‘ Celebrantur ergo illi ludi cum omni 
lasciuia, conuenientes memorize meretricis. Nam praeter uerborum licentiam, 
quibus obscenitas omnis effunditur; exuuntur etiam uestibus populo 
flagitante meretrices ; que tunc mimorum funguntur officio ; et in conspectu 
populi usque ad satietatem impudicorum luminum cum pudendis motibus 
detinentur.”? Both §. Augustine and Arnobius reprehend the lewdness of 
these naked dances. At Sens during the Feast of Fools, when every licence 
prevailed, men were led in procession nudi. Warton (History of English 
Poetry, by T. Warton, edited by W. C. Hazlitt, 4 vols., 1871), II, 223, states 
that in the Mystery Plays ‘‘ Adam and Eve are both exhibited on the stage 
naked, and conversing about their nakedness; this very pertinently intro- 
duces the next scene, in which they have coverings of fig-leaves.”” In a stage- 
direction of the Chester Plays we find: ‘‘ Statim nudisunt. . . . Tune Adam 
et Hua cooperiant genitalia sua cum foliis.’” Chambers, The Medieval Stage, 
IT, 143, doubts whether the players were actually nude, and suggests a suit 
of white leather. Warton, however, is probably right. 

2 Phales was an early deity, very similar to Priapus, and closely associated 
with the Bacchic mysteries. For the refrain.see The Acharnians, 263-265. 

3 See Callot’s series of character-etchings, I Balli di Sfessanio. 

4 Not to be confused with the printer Fust, as was at one time frequently 
supposed. 

5 In Marlowe’s play Faust welcomes ‘‘ German Valdes and Cornelius.” 
Who Valdes is has not been satisfactorily explained. The suggestion of 
Dr. Havelock Ellis that Paracelsus seems intended is no doubt correct. 

8 Translated from the Middle Dutch by Harry Morgan Ayres, with an 
Introduction by Adriaan J. Barnouw. The Dutch Library, The Hague: 
Martinus Nijhoff. 1924. 

? The International Theatre Society gave a private subscription per- 
formance of Mary of Nimmegen at Maskelyne’s Theatre on Sunday, 22 
February, 1925. But such a play, presenting crowded scenes of burgher 
life, the streets, the market-place, to be effective demands a large stage and 
costly production. 

8 Meroe is the hag “ saga et diuina’”’ in Apuleius, Metamorphoseon, I. 

® Macbeth was tinkered at almost from the first. Upon the revival of the 
play immediately after the Restoration the witch scenes were given great 
theatrical prominence. 7 January, 1667, Pepys declared himself highly 
delighted with the “‘ divertissement, though it be a deep tragedy.”’ 

10 The Witch of Edmonton was revived under my direction for two per- 
ormancss at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, 24 and 26 April, 1921. 


‘ 


WITCH IN DRAMATIC LITERATURE 313 


Sybil Thorndike played the Witch, Russell Thorndike, the Familiar ; Ion 
Swinley, Frank Thorney; Edith Evans, Ann Ratcliffe; and Frank Cochrane, 
Cuddy Banks. 

11 4to 1634: Stationers’ Register, 28 October. 

12 In a famous Scotch trial for witchcraft, 1661, Jonet Watson of Dalkeith 
confessed “‘ that the Deivill apeired vnto her in the liknes of ane prettie boy, 
in grein clothes.” 

13 Liber III. De Magis et Maleficis Finnorum. 

14 Tegue 0’ Divelly was acted by Antony Leigh, the most famous comedian 
of his day, and an intimate friend of Shadwell. 

15 Curiously enough Halliwell in The Poetry of Witchcraft, a private reprint 
of Heywood and Shadwell’s plays, 80 copies only, 1853, has not reproduced 
the italic letter but gives all the dialogue in roman to the great detriment 
of this edition. 

16 Licensed for printing 2 November, 1672, and published quarto with 
date 1673. 

17 At a later revival Ismeron’s recitative ‘‘ Ye twice ten hundred Deities ” 
was set by Purcell. 

18 Dryden’s. He wrote the first scene of the first act, the whole of the 
fourth act, rather more than one-half of act five, and Lee is responsible for 
the rest of the tragedy. 

19 For a full analysis and critical examination of Zoroastres see my article 
in the Modern Language Review, XII, Jan., 1917. 

20 The title-réle Dame Dobson was played by Mrs. Corey, a mistress of 
broad comedy, who was much admired for her humour by Samuel Pepys. 

21 Mrs. Behn owes a hint to Shirley’s The Lady of Pleasure, licensed by 
Sir Henry Herbert, 15 October, 1635 ; 4to. 1637. It must be confessed that 
she has managed her scenes with more wit and spirit than the older dramatist, 
whose charming verse is perhaps too seriously poetical for the actual situation. 

22 George Sinclar, Satan’s I nvisible World Discovered, 1685. Reprint, 
Edinburgh, 1871. Supplement, I, p. xii. 

23 The Maid’s Revenge, acted 1626, printed 1639. 

24 Compare Mopus in Wilson’s The Cheats (acted in 1662); Stargaze in 
The City Madam ; Rusee, Norbrett, and their accomplices in Rollo ; Iacchelino 
in Ariosto’s Il Negromante ; and a score beside. 

25 Sir Adolphus Ward, English Dramatic Literature, 1899, II, 465, says that 
Langbaine wrongly supposed the source of this play to be ‘‘ Machiavelli’s 
celebrated Novella on the marriage of Belphegor.’ But this is hardly correct. 
Langbaine wrote: ‘‘ The beginning of his Play seems to be writ in imitation 
of Matchiavel’s Novel of Belphegor: where Pluto summons the Devils to 
Councel.”’ 

26 For a fitting account of Alexander VI see Le Pape Alexandre VI et les 
Borgia, Paris, 1870, by Pere Ollivier, 0.P.; also Leonetti Papa Alessandro VI 
secondo documenti e carteggi del tempo, 3 vols., Bologna, 1880. Chronicles of 
the House of Borgia, by Frederick, Baron Corvo, 1901, may be studied with 
profit. Monsignor de Roo’s Material for a History of Pope Alexander VI, 
5 vols., Bruges, 1924, is of the greatest value, and completely authoritative. 

27 The murderer of the Duke of Gandia is unknown to history, if not to 
historians. 

28 The songs only are printed, 8vo, 1783. 

29 Fosbrooke, British Monachism, says that in the reign of Henry VI one 
Isolde de Heton petitioned the King to let her be admitted as an anchoress 
in the Abbey of Whalley. But afterwards she left the enclosure and broke 
her vows, whereupon the King dissolved the hermitage. 

30 The incidents are historically correct. See Cotton Mather’s Wonders 
of the Invisible World. Corey refusing to plead was pressed to death. 

31 Originally produced 10 October, 1910, at the Royalty, Glasgow: in 
London, 31 January, 1911, at the Court. Revived at the Court, 29 October, 
1913, when it ran for a month, and was afterwards included in the subsequent 
three weeks’ repertory season. | 





BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Tuts Bibliography does not aim at anything beyond pre- 
senting a brief and convenient hand-list of some of the more 
important books upon Witchcraft. It does not even purport 
to give all those monographs to which reference is made in 
the body of this study. A large number of books T have 
thought it superfluous to include. Thus I have omitted 
general works of reference such as the Encyclopedia 
Britannica, Du Cange’s Glossarium ad scriptores medie@ et 
infime latinitatis, Dugdale’s Monasticon ; daily companions 
such as the Missal, the Breviary, the Bible ; Homer, Vergil, 
Horace, Ovid, Petronius, Lucan; Shakespeare, Marlowe, 
Ford, Dryden, Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy, and English 
classics ; those histories which are on every library shelf, 
Gibbon, Lingard, Ranke; and such histories as the Cam- 
bridge Modern History. 

On the other hand, I have of purpose included various 
books which may not seem at first sight to have much 
connexion with Witchcraft, although they are, as a matter 
of fact, by no means impertinent. In order to appreciate 
this vast subject in all its bearings, even the desultory or 
amateur investigator should at least be fairly grounded in 
theology, philosophy, and psychology. The student must be 
a capable theologian. 

I have devoted some particular attention to the works 
of the demonologists, now almost universally neglected, but 
a close study of which is essential to the understanding of 
occultism and the appreciation of the grave dangers that 
may lurk there. 

I am only too conscious of the plentiful lacunz in this 
Bibliography. However, to attempt anything like a com- 
plete catalogue—if, indeed, it were possible to essay so 
illimitable a task—would involve the listing of very many 
thousands of books, and would itself require no inconsider- 
able a tale of volumes. 


315 


316 BIBLIOGRAPHY 


I need hardly point out that side by side with works of 
the highest importance it has been found necessary to 
include a few of no great value, which yet have their use to 
illustrate some one point or special phase. 


GENERAL 


CAILLET, ALBERT L. Manuel bibliographique des sciences psychiques ou 
occultes, science des Mages, hermétique, astrologie, Kabbale, Franc- 
magonnerte, médecine ancienne, mesmérisme, sorcellerie, singularités, etc. 
3 vols. Paris, 1913. 

GRA2SSE, JOHAN GEORG THEODOR. Bibliotheca magica et pneumatica. Leipzig, 
1843. (In spite of obvious defects a very valuable bibliography.) 

YveE-Puiessis, R. Bibliographie francaise de la sorcellerie. Paris, 1900. (An 
immense and exhaustive work on French books.) 


AARON THE GREEK [Simon Blocquel]. La Magie rouge. Paris, 1821. 

ABNER, THEODORE. Les apparitions du Diable. Brussels, 1879. 

Acontivus. Stratagemata Satance. Libri VIII. Basle, 1565. 

Acta Sanctorum. Par les Bollandistes. Antwerp, Tongerloo, Brussels, 1644 
sqq. Reprinted, Paris, 1863 sqq. 

ADHEMAR DE CHABANNES. Chronicle: in Monumenta Germanic historica. 
Ed. G. A. Pertz, ete. Vol. IV. 

AGOBARD, 8S. Opera omnia. Migne, Patrologia latina, Vol. CIV. 

AGRIPPA, HEINRICH CorRNELIUS La philosophie occulte de Henr. Corn. 
Agrippa . . . traduite du latin [par A. Levasseur]. 2 vols. Hague, 
1727. 

Guvres magiques .. . mises en frangais par Pierre d Aban. Rome, 1744. 
(Of the last rarity. There are other editions, Liége, 1788 ; Rome, 1800 ; 
Rome, 1744 (circa 1830); but all these are extremely scarce.) 

ALANUS (Alain de Lille). Adwersus hereticos et Waldenses.. Ed. J. Masson. 
Paris, 1612. 

ALANUS, HENRICUS. Ciceronis de Divinatione et de Fato. 1839. 

ALBERT, LE Petit. Alberti Parui Lucti libellus de mirabilibus Nature arcanis. 
(This treatise which tells how to confect philtres, make talismans, use 
the hand of glory, discover treasures, etc., has been very frequently 
translated into French, generally under the running title Les secrets 
merveilleux de la magie naturelle et cabalistique. . . .) 

Bu. ALBERTUS Maanus, O.P. Opera omnia. Ed. Father Peter Jammy, O.P. 
21 vols. Lyons, 1651, ete. 

De alchimia. (This treatise is said to be doubtful.) 

De secretis mulierum. (This work is certainly not from the pen of the 
great Dominican doctor, to whom, however, it was universally ascribed. 
There are a vast number of editions, and translations, especially into 
French. Les secretz des femmes et homes . . . stampato in Torino par 
Pietro Ranot, N.D. circa 1540. Les secrets admirables du grand Albert. 
Paris, 1895.) 

Commentaria. Lib. IV, dist. 34. An maleficii impedimento aliquis potest 
impediri a potentia cocundt. (Neud de Vaiguillette.) 

ALEXANDER III, Pore. LEpistole apud Regesta R. R. Pontificum. Nos. 10, 
584-14, 424. Ed. Jaffé. And Loéwenfeld’s Epistole Pontif. Rom. inedite. 
Leipzig, 1885. 

ALExIsS. Secrett del reverendo Donno Alessio Piemontese. Venice, 1556. 
(Attributed by Girolamo Muzio to the alchemist Girolamo Ruscelli.) 

ALLARD, PAUL. Histoire des persécutions. 5 vols. Paris, 1892. 

Julien ’ Apostat. 3 vols. Paris, 1900. 

ALPHONSUS Liauort, S. Theologia Moralis. 9 vols. Malines, 1828. Ago 
ed. P. Gaudé, C. SS, R. Rome, 1905, 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 317 


ALVARO, Petayo. De Planctu Hcclesie. Venice, 1560. 

AMBROISE DA VIGNATE (c. 1408). Tractatus de Hereticis. Rome, 1581. 

AMBROSE, S. Opera omnia. Ed. Paolo Angelo Ballerini. 6 vols. Folio. 
Milan, 1875. 

ANANIA, GIOVANNI LoRENZzO. De Natura Demonum. Apud Vol. II. Malleus 
Maleficarum. 1669. 

Anonymi Gesta Francorum et Aliorum Hierosolymitanorum. Oxford. 

ANTONELLI, G. Pror. Lo spiritismo. Fede e Scienza, II. 11, 12. Rome. 

ANToNINuS, O. P. 8. Confessionale. Florence, 1496. 

ANTONIO A Sprritu SANcTO, O.D.C. Directorium Mysticum. Paris, 1904. 

AREMI (LE Saaz). Secrets de vieux Druide. Lille, 1840. 

ARETINI, ANGELO. JZ'ractatus de maleficiis. 1521. 

Arties, Martin. De superstitionibus maleficorum. Rome, 1559. 

ARIMINENSIS, AuGusTiInuS. Additiones in Angeli Aretint Tractatum de 
maleficiis. Milan, 1514. 

ARNAULD DE VILLENEUVE. De Maleficiis. uyons, 1509. 

ARNOULD, ArTHUR. Histoire de Inquisition. Paris, 1869. 

Arnoux. Mystéres de la Chevalerie et de Vamour platonique. 1857-8. 

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ATHANASIUS, 8S. Opera omnia. Migne, Pat. Graecit. Vols. XXIII-XXVIII. 

Atwoop, M. A. A Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery. 

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De Ciuitate Dei. Ed. J. E. C. Welldon, D.D., Dean of Durham. 2 
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Confessiones. Ed. P. Knéll. Corpus Scriptorum Eccl. Latinorum (Vienna.) 
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p’Autun, Jacqurs. L’Incredulité savante. Lyons, 1674. 

p’AVALLON, ANDRE, ET Conpis. Dictionnaire de droit canonique. 

AZPILCEUTA, MARTIN. Opera omnia. 3 vols. Lyons, 1589. 

Baco, R. De secretis operibus magiew. Paris, 1542. 

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magic. Paris, 1542; Oxford, 1604; London, 1859. 

Batssac, JuLES. Les grands jours de la sorcellerte. Paris, 1890. 

BALLERINI, ANTONIO, S.J. Opus theologicum morale. 7 vols. Prati, 1892. 

Bane. Norske Hexeformularer. Christiania, 1902. 

BaRontivus, CESARE VEN. Annales ecclesiastict. 38 vols. Lucca, 1738-59. 

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Basin, 8. Opera omnia. Paris, 1839. 

Basin, Bernarpus. De artibus magicis. 1482; and Paris, 1506. 

Brcanus, Martin, 8.J. Opuscula Theologica sive Controversie Fidei inter 
Catholicos et Heereticos hujus temporis. Duaci, 1634. 

Brrr, M. Social Struggles in the Middle Ages. London, 1924. 

BEKKER, BattHasar. De Betoverde Wereld. 4 vols. Amsterdam, 1691-93. 

BENeEpDIcT XIII. Vita del Sommo Pontefice Benedetto XIII. Venezia, 1737. 

BEeNneEpict XIV, Porr. De Beatificatione et Canonizatione. 9 vols. Rome, 
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Benoist, J., O.P. Histoire des Albigeoises et des Vaudois. Paris, 1691. 

BERNARD, S. Opera omnia. Migne, Pat. Lat. CLXXXII-CLXXXYV. 

BERNARD oF Como, O.P. Lucerna inquisitorum heretice prauitatis ... et 
eiusdem Tractatus de Strigibus. . . . Milan, 1566 ; Rome, 1584. 

BERNARD OF LuxEeMBURG, O.P. Catalogus hereticorum omnium. Erfurt, 
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Bertuter, O.P. L’ Etude de la Somme Théologique de S. Thomas d’Aquin. 
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BESTERMAN, THEODORE. Crystal-Gazing. 


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BIBLIOGRAPHY 319 


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SCRIPTURAL AND ORIENTAL 


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BIBLIOGRAPHY 329 


ENGLAND: THE PAMPHLET LITERATURE 
(Arranged in chronological order) 


The Examination and confession of certaine Wytches at Chensforde in the Countie 
of Essex before the Quenes maiesties Judges, the XXVI daye of July Anno 
1566. 

A Rehearsall both straung and true of hainous and horrible actes committed by 
Elizabeth Stile, alias Rockingham, Mother Dutten, Mother Devell, Mother 
Margaret. Fower notorious Witches apprehended at Winsore in the Countie 
of Barks, and at Abington arraigned, condemned and executed on the 28 
daye of Februarie last anno 1579. 

A Detection of damnable driftes, practised by three Witches arraigned at Chelms- 
forde in Essex . . . whiche were executed im Aprill 1579. 1579. 

The apprehension and confession of three notorious Witches arraigned and by 
Justice condemnede in the Countye of Essex the 5 day of Julye last past. 
1589. 

A True and just Recorde of the Information, Examination and Confessions of 
all the Witches taken at St. Oses in the countie of Essex : wherefore some 
were executed, and other some entreated accordingly to the determination 
of Lawe. . . . Written orderly, as the cases were tryed by evidence, by W. W. 
1582. 

The most strange and admirable discoverie of the three Wvitches of Warboys, 
arraigned, convicted and executed at the last assizes at Huntingdon. London, 
1593. 

(This was one of the most famous cases of English Witchcraft. A 
whole literature grew up in connexion therewith. In Notes and Queries, | 
Twelfth Series, I, 1916, p. 283 and p. 304, will be found: “ The Witches 
of Warboys: Bibliographical Note,” where twenty-eight entries are 


made.) 
The most wonderfull and true storie of a certaine Witch named Alse Gooderidge 
of Stapenhill, who was arraigned and convicted at Darbie. . . . As also a 


true Report of the strange Torments of Thomas Darling, a boy of thirteen 
years of age, that was possessed by the Devill, with his horrible Fittes and 
terrible apparitions by him uttered at Burton, upon Trent, in the county of 
Stafford, and of his marvellous deliverance. London, 1597. [By John 
Denison. | 

The Arraignment and Execution of 3 detestable Witches, John Newell, Joane 
his wife, and Hellen Calles ; two executed at Barnett, and one at Braynford, 
1 Dec. 1595. 

The severall Facts of Witcherafte approved on Margaret Haskett of Stanmore, 
1585. Black letter. 

An Account of Margaret Hacket, a notorious Witch, who consumed a young Man 
to Death, rotted his Bowells and back bone asunder, who was executed at 
Tiborn, 19 Feb. 1585. London, 1585. 

The Examination and Confession of a notorious Witch named Mother Arnold, 
alias Whitecote, alias Glastonbury, at the Assise of Burntwood in July, 1574 : 
who was hanged for Witchcraft at Barking. 1575. 

(The four preceding pamphlets although referred to. by Lowndes and 
other bibliographers apparently have not been traced.) 

A true report of three Straunge Witches, lately found at Newnham Regis. 

(Not traced. Hazlitt, Handbook, p. 231. 

A short treatise declaringe the detestable wickednesse of magicall sciences, as 
Necromancie, Coniuration of Spirites, Curiouse Astrologie and such 
lyke. . . . Made by Francis Coxe. [London, 1561.] Black letter. 

The Examination of John Walsh, before Master Thomas Williams, Commissary 
to the Reverend father in God, William, bishop of Eucester, upon certayne 
Interrogatories touchyng Wytch-crafte and Sorcerye, in the presence of 
divers gentlemen and others, the XX of August, 1566. 1566. Black letter. 

The discloysing of a late counterfeyted possession by the devyl in two maydens 
within the Citie of London. [1574.] Black letter. 


330 BIBLIOGRAPHY 


The Wonderfull Worke of God shewed upon a Chylde, whose name 1s William 
Withers, being in the Towne of Walsam .. . Suffolk, who, being Eleven 
Yeeres of age, laye in a Traunce the Space of tenne Days . . . and hath 
continued the Space of Three Weeks. London, 1581. 

A Most Wicked worke of a Wretched Witch (the like whereof none can record 
these manie yeares in England) wrought on the Person of one Richard Burt, 
servant to Maister Edling of Woodhall in the Parrish of Pinner wm the 
Countie of Myddlesex, a myle beyond Harrow. Latelie committed in March 
last, An. 1592 and newly recognized acording to the truth. By G. B. maister 
of Artes. [London, 1593.] 

A defensative against the poyson of supposed prophecies, not hitherto confuted 
by the penne of any man; which being eyther uppon tle warrant and 
authority of old paynted bookes, expositions of dreames, oracles, revelations, 
invocations of damned spirits . . . have been causes of great disorder in 
the commonwealth and chiefly among the simple and unlearned people. 
Circa 1581-3. 

The scratchinge of the wytches. 1579. 

A warnynge to wytches. 1585. 

A lamentable songe of Three Wytches of Warbos, and executed at Huntingdon. 
1593. 

(The three preceding are ballads. See Hazlitt, Bzrblographical 
Collections and Notes, 2nd Series. London, 1882.) 

A poosye in forme of a visyon, agaynste wytche Crafte, and Sosyrye. 

A Breife Narration of the possession, dispossession, and repossession of William 
Sommers ... Together with certaine depositions taken at Nottingham. 
1598. 

An Apologie, or defence of the possession of William Sommers, a yong man of 
the towne of Nottingham. . . . By John Darrell, Minister of Christ Jesus. 
[1599 ?] Black letter. 

The Triall of Maist. Dorrel, or A Collection of Defences against Allegations. . . 
1599. 

(Apparently written by Darrel himself; but the Huth catalogue 
(V. 1643) ascribes it to James Bamford.) 

A brief Apologie proving the possession of William Sommers. Written by John 
Dorrel, a faithful Minister of the Gospell, but published without his 
knowledge. . . . 1599. 

A Discovery of the Fraudulent Practises of John Darrel, Bacheler of Artes... . 
London, 1599. (By Samuel Harsnett.) 

A True Narration of the strange and grevous Vexation by the Devil of seven 
persons in Lancashire. . . . 1600. Written by Darrel. 

(Reprinted in 1641, and again in the Somers Tracts, III.) 

A True Discourse concerning the certaine possession and dispossession of 7 
persons in one familie in Lancashire, which also may serve as part of an 
Answere to a fayned and false Discoverie. . . . By George More, Minister 
and Preacher of the Worde of God. . . . 1600. 

A Detection of that sinnful, shamful, lying, and ridiculous discours of Samuel 
Harshnet. 1600. (By Darrel in answer to Harsnett.) 

A Summarie Answere to al the Material Points in any of Master Darel his 
bookes, More especiallie to that one Booke of his, intituled, the Doctrine 
of the Possession and Dispossession of Demoniaks out of the word of God. 
By John Deacon [and] John Walker, Preachers. London, 1601. 

A Survey of Certaine Dialogical Discourses, written by John Deacon and John 
Walker. . . . By John Darrell, minister of the gospel. . . . 1602. 

The Replie of John Darrell, to the Answer of John Deacon, and John Walker 
concerning the doctrine of the Possession and Dispossession of Demoniakes. 


. « 1602. 
A True and Breife Report of Mary Glover’s Vexation, and of her deliverance 
by the meanes of fastinge and prayer. ... By John Swan, student in 


Divinitie. . . . 1603. 

Elizabeth Jackson was indicted on the charge of having bewitched 
Mary Glover, but Dr. Edward Jorden, who examined the girl declared 
her an hysterical impostor in his pamphlet 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 331 


A briefe discourse of a disease called the Suffocation of the Mother, Written uppon 
occasion which hath beene of late taken thereby, to suspect possession of an 
evill spirit. . . . London, 1603. 

A history of the case of Catherine Wright. 

The strange Newes out of Sommersetshire, Anno 1584, tearmed, a dreadfull 
discourse of the dispossessing of one Maggaret Cooper at Ditchet, from a 
devill in the likenes of a headlesse beare. Discovery of the Fraudulent 
Practices of John Darrel. 1584. 

The Most Cruell and Bloody Murther committed by an Inn-keepers Wife called 
Annis Dell, and her Sonne George Dell, Foure Years since... . With 
the severall Witch-crafts and most damnable practices of one Iohane H arrison 
and her Daughter, upon several persons men and women at Royston, who 
were all executed at Hartford the 4 of August last past 1606. London, 1606. 

The Witches of Northamptonshire. 

Agnes Browne Arthur Bull 
Joane Vaughan Hellen Jenkenson 
Mary Barber 

Who were all executed at Northampton the 22 of July last. 1612. 1612. 

The severall notorious and lewd Cosenages of Iohn West and Alice West, falsely 
called the King and Queene of Fayries . . . convicted... . 1613. London, 
1613. 

The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the countie of Lancaster. With the 
Arraignment and Triall of Nineteene notorious Witches, at the Assizes 
and Gaole deliverie, holden at the Castle of Lancaster, upon Munday, the 
seventeenth of August last, 1612. Before Sir James Altham, and Sir 
Edward Bromley. London, 1613. 

(Reprinted by the Chetham Society, edited James Crossley. 1845. 
One of the most famous of the witch-trials.) 

Witches Apprehended, Examined and Executed, for notable villanies by them 
committed both by Land and Water. With a strange and most true trial how 
to know whether a woman be a Witch or not. London, 1613. 

A Booke of the Wytches Lately condemned and executed at Bedford, 1612-1613. 

A Treatise of Witchcraft. . . . With a true Narration of the Witchcrafts which 
Mary Smith, wife of Henry Smith, Glover, did practise .. . and lastly, 
of her death and execution. . . . By Alexander Roberts, B.D. and Preacher 
of Gods Word at Kings-Linne in Norffolke. London, 1616. 

The Wonderful Discoverie of the Witchcrafts of Margaret and Phillip Flower, 
daughters of Joan Flower neere Bever Castle: executed at Lincolne, 
March 11, 1618. Who were specially arraigned and condemned .. . for 
confessing themselves actors in the destruction of Henry, Lord Rosse, with 
their damnable practises against others the Children of the Right Honourable 
Francis Earle of Rutland. Together with the severall Examinations and 
Confessions of Anne Baker, Joan Wilimot, and Ellen Greene, Witches of 
Leicestershire. London, 1619. 

Strange and wonderfull Witchcrafts, discovering the damnable Practises of seven 
Witches against the Lives of certain noble Personages and others of this 
Kingdom ; with an approved Triall how to find out either Witch or any 
Apprentise to Witchcraft. 1621. Another edition in 1635. 

The Wonderfull discoverie of Elizabeth Sawyer... late of Edmonton, her 
conviction, condemnation and Death, . . . Written by Henry Goodcole, 
Minister of the word of God, and her continuall Visiter in the Gaole of 
Newgate... . 1621. 

(Reprinted in Vol. I (Ixxxi-cvii) of Bullen’s recension of the Dyce- 
Gifford Ford. 3 vols. London, 1895.) 

The Boy of Bilson: or A True Discovery of the Late Notorious Impostures of 
Certaine Romish Priests in their pretended Exorcisme, or expulsion of the 
Divell out of a young Boy, named William Perry... - London, 1622. 

A Discourse.of Witchcraft As it was acted in the Family of Mr. Edward Fairfax 
of Fuystone in the County of York, im the year 1621. Edited by R. 
Monckton Milnes (Lord Houghton) for Vol. V of Miscellanies of the 
Philobiblon Soc. London, 1858-1859. (The editor says the original MS. 
is still in existence.) 


\ Witches 


332 BIBLIOGRAPHY 


A Most certain, strange and true Discovery of a Witch, Being overtaken by some 
of the Parliament Forces, as she was standing on a small Planck-board and 
sayling on it over the River of Newbury, Together with the strange and true 
manner of her death. 1643. 

A Confirmation and Discovery of Witch-craft . . . together with the Confessions 
of many of those executed since May, 1645. . . . By John Stearne. 

The Examination, Confession, Triall, and Execution of Joane Williford, Joan 
Cariden and Jane Hott: who were executed at Faversham, in Kent... 
all attested under the hand of Robert Greenstreet, Maior of Faversham. 

A true and exact Relation of the severall Informations, Examinations, and Con- 
fessions of the late Witches arraigned . . . and condemned at the late Sessions, - 
holden at Chelmsford before the Right Honorable Robert, Earle of Warwicke, 
and severall of his Majesties Justices of Peace, the 29 of July, 1645. 

A True Relation of the Arraignment of eighteene Witches at St. Edmundsbury, 
27th August, 1645. ... As Also a List of the names of those that were 
executed. ; 

Strange and fearfull newes from Plaisto in the parish of Westham neere Bow 
foure miles from London. London, 1645. 

The Lawes against Witches and Conjuration, and Some brief Notes and 
Observations for the Discovery of Witches. Being very Usefull for these 
Times wherein the Devil reignes and prevailes. . . . Also The Confession 
of Mother Lakeland, who was arraigned and condemned for a Witch at 
Ipswich in Suffolke. . . . By Authority. London, 1645. 

Signes and Wonders from Heaven. . . . Likewise a new discovery of Witches 
in Stepney Parish. And how 20. Witches more were executed in Suffolk 
this last Assize. Also how the Divell came to Sofforn to a Farmer’s house 
in the habit of a Gentlewoman on horse backe. London [1645]. 

Relation of a boy who was entertained by the Devil to be Servant to him... 
about Credition in the West, and how the Devil carried him up in the aire, 
and showed him the torments of Hell, and some of the Cavaliers there, etc., 
with a coppie of a Letter from Maior Generall Massie, concerning these 
strange and Wonderfull things, with a certaine box of Reliques and Crucifixes 
found in Tiverton Church. 1645. 

(A ridiculous, but not uninteresting, publication.) 

The Witches of Huntingdon, their Examinations and Confessions. . . . London, 
1646. 

(The Dedication is signed by John Davenport.) 

The Discovery of Witches : in answer to severall Queries, lately Delivered to the 
Judges of Assize for the County of Norfolk. And now published by Matthew 
Hopkins, Witchfinder. For the Benefit of the Whole Kingdome. . . 
London, 1647. 

(The most famous of the “‘ Hopkins series.’’) 

A strange and true Relation of a Young Woman possest with the Devill. By name 
Joyce Dovey dwelling at Bewdley neer Worcester. . . . Also a Letter from 
Cambridge, wherein is related the late conference between the Devil (in the 
shape of a Mr. of Arts) and one Ashbourner, a Scholler of S. Johns Colledge 

. who was afterwards carried away by him and never heard of since onely 
his Gown found in the River. London, 1647. 

The Full Tryals, Examination and Condemnation of Four Notorious Witches, 
At the Assizes held in Worcester on Tuseday the 4th of March. ... As 
also Their Confessions and last Dying Speeches at the place of Execution, 
with other Amazing Particulars. . . . London, no date. 

The Divels Delusions or A faithfull relation of John Palmer and Elizabeth Knot 
two notorious Witches lately condemned at the Sessions of Oyer and Terminer 
in St. Albans. 1649. 

Wonderfull News from the North, Or a True Relation of the Sad and Grievous 
Torments Inflicted wpon the Bodies of three Children of Mr. George Mus- 
champ, late of the County of Northumberland, by Witchcraft. . . . As also. 
the prosecution of the sayd Witches, as by Oaths, and their own Confessions 
will appear and by the Indictment found by the Jury against one of them, 
at the Sessions of the Peace held at Alnwick, the 24 day of April, 1650. 
London, 1650. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 333 


The strange Witch at Greenwich haunting a Wench, 1650. 

A Strange Witch at Greenwich, 1650. 

The Witch of Wapping, or an Exact and Perfect Relation of the Life and Devilish 
Practises of Joan Peterson, who dwelt in Spruce Island, near Wapping ; 
Who was condemned for practising Witchcraft, and sentenced to be Hanged 
at Tyburn, on Munday the 11th of April, 1652. London, 1652. 

A Declaration in Answer to several lying Pamphlets concerning the Witch of 
Wapping, . . . shewing the Bloudy Plot and wicked Conspiracy of one 
Abraham Vandenhemde, Thomas Crompton, Thomas Collet, and others. 
London, 1652. 

The Tryall and Examinations of Mrs. Joan Peterson before the Honourable 
Bench at the Sessions house in the Old Bayley yesterday. [1652.] 

Doctor Lamb’s Darling, or Strange and terrible News from Salisbury ; Being 
A true, exact, and perfect Relation of the great and wonderful Contract and 
Engagement made between the Devil, and Mistris Anne Bodenham ; with 
the manner how she could transform herself into the shape of a Mastive Dog, 
a black Lyon, a white Bear, a Woolf, a Bull, and a Cat... . The Tryal, 
Examinations, and Confession .. . before the Lord Chief Baron Wild. 
. . . By James (Edmond ?| Bower, Cleric. London, 1653. 

Doctor Lamb Revived, or, Witchcraft condemn’d in Anne Bodenham .. . who 
was Arraigned and Executed the Lent Assizes last at Salisbury, before the 
Right Honourable the Lord Chief Baron Wud, Judge.of the Assize.... 
By Edmund Bower, an eye and ear Witness of her Examination and 
Confession. London, 1653. (Bower’s second and more detailed account.) 

A Prodigious and Tragicall History of the Arraignment, Tryall, Confession, 
and Condemnation of six Witches at Maidstone, in Kent, at the Assizes 
there held in July, Fryday 30, this present year, 1652. Before the Right 
Honorable, Peter Warburton. . .. Collected from the Observations of 
E. G. Gent, a learned person, present at their Convictions and Condemnation . 
London, 1652. 

The most true and wonderfull Narration of two women bewitched in Yorkshire : 
Who comming to the Assizes at York to give Evidence against the Witch 
after a most horrible noise to the terror and amazement of all the beholders, 
did vomit forth before the Judges, Pins, wool. .. . Also a most true Relation 
of a young Maid ...who...did... vomit forth wadds of straw, 
with pins a crosse in them, won Nails, Needles, . . . as it is attested under 
the hand of that most famous Phisition Doctor Henry Heers. . . . 1658. 

A more Exact Relation of the most lamentable and horrid Contract with Lydia 
Rogers, living in Pump-Alley in Wapping, made with the Divel.. . 
Together with the great pains and prayers of many eminent Divines. . . 
1658. 

The Snare of the Devill Discovered : Or, A True and perfect Relation of the sad 
and deplorable Condition of Lydia the Wife of John Rogers House Carpenter, 
living in Greenbank in Pumpe alley in Wappin. .« » Also her Examination 
by Mr. Johnson the Minister of Wappin, and her Confession, As also in 
what a sad Condition she continues. . . . London, 1658. 

Strange and Terrible Newes from Cambridge, being A true Relation of the 
Quakers bewitching of Mary Philips . . . into the shape of a Bay Mare, 
riding her from Dinton towards the University. With the manner how she 
became visible again . . . in her own Likeness and Shape, with her sides 
all rent and torn, as if they had been spur-galled, .. . and the Names of 
the Quakers brought to tryal on Friday last at the Assizes held at Cambridge. 
. . . London, 1659. 

The Power of Witchcraft, Being a most strange but true Relation of the most 

~ miraculous and wonderful deliverance of one Mr. William Harrison of 
Cambden in the County of Gloucester, Steward to the Lady Nowell. .. .«' 
London, 1662. 

A True and Perfect Account of the Examination, Confession, Tryal, Condemna- 
tion and Execution of Joan Perry and her two Sons .. . for the supposed 
murder of William Harrison, Gent. . . . London, 1676. 

A Tryal of Witches at the assizes held at Bury St. Edmonds for the County of 
Suffolk ; on the tenth day of March, 1664. London, 1682; and 1716. 


334 | BIBLIOGRAPHY 


The Lord’s Arm Stratched Out in an Answer of Prayer or a True Relation of 
the Wonderful Deliverance of James Barrow, the Son of John Barrow of 
Olaves Southwark, London, 1664. (A Baptist tract.) 

The wonder of Suffolke, being a true relation of one that reports he made a league 
with the Devil for three years, to do mischief, and now breaks open houses, 
robs people daily .. . and can neither be shot nor taken, but leaps over 
walls fifteen feet high, runs five or six miles in a quarter of an hour, and 
sometimes vanishes in the midst of multitudes that go to take him. Faith- 
fully written in a letter from a solemn person, dated not long since, to a friend 
in Ship-Yard near Temple-bar, and ready to be attested by hundreds... . 
London, 1677. 

Daimonomageia : a small Treatise of Sicknesses and Diseases from Witchcraft 


and Supernatural Causes. . . . Being useful to others besides Physicians, 
in that it confutes Atheistical, Sadducistical, and Sceptical Principles and 
Imaginations. . . . London, 1665. 


Hartford-shire Wonder. Or, Strange News from Ware, Being an Exact and 
true Relation of one Jane Stretton . . . who hath been visited in a 
strange kind of manner by extraordinary and unusual fits. . . . London, 
1669. 

A Magicall Vision, Or a Perfect Discovery of the Fallacies of Witchcraft, As tt 
was lately represented in a pleasant sweet Dream to a Holysweet Sister, a 
faithful and pretious Assertor of the Family of the Stand-Hups, for pre- 
servation of the Saints from being tainted with the heresies of the Congregation 
of the Doe-Litiles. London, 1673. (Hazlitt, Bibliographical Collections, 
fourth series, s. wu. Witchcraft.) 

A Full and True Relation of The Tryal, Condemnation, and Execution of Ann 
Foster . . . at the place of Execution at Northampton. With the Manner 
how she by her Malice and Witchcraft set all the Barns and Corn on Fire 

. and bewitched a whole Flock of Sheep. . . . London, 1674. 

Strange News from Arpington near Bexby in Kent: Being a True Narrative 
of a yong Maid who was Possest with several Devils. . . . London, 1679. 

Strange and Wonderful News from Yowell in Surry ; Giving a True and 
Just Account of One Elizabeth Burgess, Who was most strangely Bewitched 
and Tortured at a sad rate. London, 1681. 

An Account of the Tryal and Examination of Joan Buts, for being a Common 
Witch and Inchantress, before the Right Honourable Sir Francis Pemberton, 
Lord Chief Justice, at the Assizes. . . . 1682. Single leaf. 

The Tryal, Condemnation, and Execution of Three Witches, viz., Temperance 
Floyd, Mary Floyd, and Susanna Edwards. Who were Arraigned at 
Exeter on the 18th of August, 1682. London, 1682. 

A True and Impartial Relation of the Informations against Three Witches, viz., 
Temperance Lloyd, Mary Trembles, and Susanna Edwards, who were .. . 
Convicted at the Assizes holden... at... Hxon, Aug. 14, 1682. With 
their several Confessions . . . as also Their ... Behaviour, at the... 
Execution on the Twenty fifth of the said Month. London, 1682. 

Witchraft discovered and punished Or the Tryals and Condemnation of three 
Notorious Witches, who were Tryed the last Assizes, holden at the Castle 
of Exeter . . . where they received sentence of Death, for bewitching severall 
Persons, destroying Ships at Sea, and Catiel by Land. To the Tune of 
Doctor Faustus ; or Fortune my Foe. 

(A ballad. Roxburghe Collection. Broadside.) 
The Life and Conversation of Temperance Floyd, Mary Lloyd and Susanna 


Edwards ...; Lately Condemned at Exeter Assizes ; together with a 
full Account of their first Agreement with the Devil: With the manner how 
they prosecuted their devilish Sorceries. . . . London, 1687. 


A Full and True Account of the Proceedings at the Sessions of Oyer and Terminer 
. which began at the Sessions House in the Old Bayley on Thursday, 
June lst, and Ended on Fryday, June 2nd, 1682. Wherein is Contained 
the Tryall of Jane Kent for Witchcraft. 
Strange and Dreadful News from the Town of Deptford in the County of Kent, 
Being a Full, True, and Sad Relation of one Anne Arthur. 1684-5. 
One leaf, folio. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 335 


Strange newes from Shadwell, beinga . . . relation of the death of Alice Fowler, 
who had for many years been accounted a witch. London, 1685. 

A True Account of a Strange and Wonderful Relation of one John Tonken, of 
Pensans in Cornwall, said to be Bewitched by some Women : two of which 
on Suspition are committed to Prison. London, 1686. 

News from Panier Alley ; or a True Relation of Some Pranks the Devil hath 
lately play’d with a Plaster Pot there. London, 1687. 

A faithful narrative of the... fits which. . . Thomas Spatchet . . . was 
under by witchcraft. . . . 1693. 

The Second Part of the Boy of Bilson, Or a True and Particular Relation of 
the Imposter Susanna Fowles, wife of John Fowles of Hammersmith in the 
Co. of Midd., who pretended herself to be possessed. London, 1698. 

A Full and True Account Both of the Life: And also the Manner and Method 
of carrying on the Delusions, Blasphemies, and Notorious Cheats of Susan 
Fowls, as the same was Contrived, Plotted, Invented, and Managed by 
wicked Popish Priests and other Papists. 

The trial of Susannah Fowles, of Hammersmith, for blaspheming Jesus Christ, 
and cursing the Lord’s Prayer. . . . London, 1698. 

The Case of Witchcraft at Coggeshall, Essex, in the year 1699. Being the Narra- 
tive of the Rev. J. Boys, Minister of the Parish. Printed from his manu- 
script in the possession of the publisher (A. Russell Smith). London, 
1901. 

A True and Impartial Account of the Dark and Hellish Power of Witchcraft, 
Lately Exercised on the Body of the Reverend Mr. Wood, Minister of 
Bodmyn. In a Letter from a Gentleman there, to his Friend in Exon, in 
Confirmation thereof. Exeter, 1700. 

A Full and True Account of the Apprehending and Taking of Mrs. Sarah 
Moordike, Who is accused for a Witch, Being taken near Pauls’ Wharf .. . 
for having Bewitched one Richard Hetheway. . . . With her Examination ' 
before the Right Worshipful Sir Thomas Lane, Sir Oven Buckingham, and 
Dr. Hambleton in Bowe-lane. 1701. 

A short Account of the Trial held at Surry Assizes, in the Borough of Southwark ; 
on an Information against Richard Hathway . . . for Riot and Assault. 
London, 1702. 

The Tryall of Richard Hathaway, upon an Information For being a Cheat and 
Imposter. For endeavouring to take away the Life of Sarah Morduck, Por 
being a Witch at Surry Assizes. . . . London, 1702. 

A Full and True Account of the Discovery, Apprehending, and taking of a 
Notorious Witch, who was carried before Justice Bateman in Well-Close 
on Sunday, July the 23. Together with her Examination and Commitment 
to Bridewel, Clerkenwell. London, 1704. 

An Account of the Tryals, Examination, and Condemnation of Elinor Shaw 
and Mary Phillips. . . . 1705. 

The Northamptonshire Witches. . . . 1705. 

The Devil Turned Casuist, or the Cheats of Rome Laid open in the Exorcism 
of a Despairing Devil at the House of Thomas Bennington in Oriel. . . . 
By Zachary Taylor, M.A., Chaplain to the Right reverend Father im 
God, Nicholas, Lord Bishop of Chester, and Rector of Wigan. London, 
1696. 

The Surey Demoniack, Or an Account of Satan’s Strange and Dreadful Actings, 
In and about the Body of Richard Dugdale of Surey, near Whalley in 
Lancashire. And How he was Dispossest by Gods blessing on the Fastings 
and Prayers of divers Ministers and People. London, 1697. 

The Surey Imposter, being an answer to a late Fanatical Pamphlet, entituled 
The Surey Demoniack. By Zachary Taylor. London, 1697. 

A Vindication of the Surey Demoniack as no Imposter: Or, A Reply to a 
certain Pamphlet publish’d by Mr. Zach. Taylor, called The Surey Imposter. 
... By T. J., London, 1698. 

Popery, Supersitition, Ignorance and Knavery very unjustly by a letter in the 
general pretended ; but as far as was charg’d very fully proved upon the 
Dissenters that were concerned in the Surey Imposture. 1698. Written by 
Zachary Taylor. 


336 BIBLIOGRAPHY 


The Lancashire Levite Rebuked, or a Vindication of the Dissenters from Popery, 
Superstition, Ignorance, and Knavery, unjustly Charged on them by 
Mr. Zachary Taylor. . . . London, 1698. 

The Lancashire Levite Rebuked, or a Farther Vindication. 1698. 

Popery, Superstition, Ignorance, and Knavery, Confess’d and fully Proved 
on the Surey Dissenters, from a Second Letter of an Apostate Friend, to 
Zach. Taylor. To which is added a Refutation of T'. Jollie’s Vindication. 
. . . London, 1699. Written by Zachary Taylor. 

A Refutation of Mr. I’. Jolly’s Vindication of the Devil in Dugdale ; Or, The 
Surey Demoniack. London, 1699. 

The Portsmouth Ghost, or A Full and true Account of a Strange, wonderful, and 
dreadful Appearing of the Ghost of Madam Johnson, a beautiful young 
Lady of Portsmouth, Shewing, 1. Her falling in Love with Mr. John Hunt, 
a Captain in one of the Regiments sent to Spain. 2. Of his promising her 
Marriage, and leaving her big With Child. 3. Of her selling herself to the 
Devil to be revenged on the Captain. 4. Of her ripping open her own Belly, 
and the Devil’s flying away with her Body, and leaving the Child in the room. 
... 7. Of her Carrying [the Captain] away in the night in a flame of fire. 
Printed and sold by Cluer Dicey and Co. in Aldermary Church Yard, 
Bow Lane. Circa 1704. 

A Looking Glass for Swearers, Drunkards, Blasphemers, Sabbath Breakers, 
Rash Wishers, and Murderers. Being a True Relation of one Elizabeth 
Hale, in Scotch Yard in White Cross Street ; who having sold herself to the 
Devil to be reveng’d on her Neighbours, did on Sunday last, in a wicked 
manner, put a quantity of Poyson into a Pot where a Piece of Beef was a 
boyling for several Poor Women and Children, Two of which dropt down 
dead, and Twelve more are dangerously Ill; the Truth of which will be 
Attested by several in the Neighbourhood. Her Examination upon the 
Crowners Inquest and her Commitment to Newgate. Printed by W. Wise 
and M. Holt in Fleet Street, 1708. 

The Witch of the Woodlands ; Or, The Cobler’s New Translation. Printed and 
Sold in Aldermary Church Yard, Bow Lane, London. No date, but 
about 1710. This pamphlet merely relates an old legend, but is interesting 
ag reproducing with appropriate woodcuts intimate details of the 
medieval Sabbat. 

An Account of the Tryal, Examination, and Condemnation of Jane Wenham, 
on an Indictment of Witchcraft, for Bewitching of Matthew Gilston and 
Anne Thorne of Walcorne, in the County of Hertford... . 

A Full and Impartial Account of the Discovery of Sorcery and Witchcraft, 
Practis’d by Jane Wenham of Walkerne in Hertfordshire, upon the bodies 
of Anne Thorn, Anne Street, &c. ... till she... recew’d Sentence of 
Death for the same, March 4, 1711-12. London, 1712. 

Witchcraft Farther Display’d. Containing (I) An Account of the Wutchcraft 
practisd by Jane Wenham of Walkerne, in Hertfordshire, since her 
Condemnation, wpon the bodies of Anne Thorne and Anne Street. . . 
(II) An Answer to the most general Objections against the Being and 
Power of Witches : With some Remarks upon the Case of Jane Wenham in 
particular, and on Mr. Justice Powel’s procedure therein. . . . London, 
1712. 

A Full Confutation of Witchcraft: More particularly of the Depositions against 
Jane Wenham, Lately Condemned for a Witch; at Hertford. In which 
the Modern Notions of Witches are overthrown, and the Ill Consequences 
of such Doctrines are exposed by Arguments ; proving that, Witchcraft is 
Priestcraft. . .. In a Letter from a Physician in Hertfordshire, to his 
Friend in London. London, 1712. 

The Impossibility of Witchcraft, Plainly Proving, From Scripture and Reason, 
That there never was a Witch ; and that tt is both Irrational and Impious 
to believe there ever was. In which the Depositions against Jane Wenham, 
Lately Try’d and Condemned for a Witch, at Hertford, are Confuted and 
Ezxpos’d. London, 1712. 

The Belief of Witchcraft Vindicated ; proving from Scripture, there have been 
Witches ; and from Reason, that there may be Such still. In answer to a 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 337 


late Pamphlet, Intituled, The Impossibility of Witchcraft.. . By G. R., 
A.M. London, 1712. 
The Case of the Hertfordshire Witchcraft Consider’d. Being an Examination 


of a book entitl’d, A Full and Impartial Account. . . . London, 1712. 
A Defense of the Proceedings against Jane Wenham, wherein the Possibility 
and Reality of Witchcraft are Demonstrated from Scripture... . In 


Answer to Two Pamphlets Entituled : (I) The Impossibility of Witchcraft, 
etc. (II) A Full Confutation of Witchcraft. By Francis Bragge, A.B., 
London, 1712. 

The Impossibility of Witchcraft Further Demonstrated, Both from Scripture and 
Reason . . . with some Cursory Remarks on two trifling Pamphlets in 
Defense of the existence of Witches. 1712. 

An Account of The Tryals, Examination and Condemnation of Elinor Shaw 
and Mary Phillips (Two notorious Witches) on Wednesday the 7th of 
March, 1705, for Bewitching a Woman, and two children. . . . With an 
Account of their strange Confessions. This is signed at the end, ‘‘ Ralph 
Davis, March 8, 1705.” It was followed very shortly by a completer 
account, written after the execution, and entitled : 

The Northamptonshire Witches, Being a true and faithful account of the Births, 
Educations, Lives, and Conversations of Elinor Shaw and Mary Phillips 
(The two notorious Witches) That were Executed at Northampton on 
Saturday, March the lith, 1705... with their full Confession to the 
Minister, and last Dying Speeches at the place of Execution, the like never 
before heard of. . . . Communicated in a Letter last Post, from Mr. Ralph 
Davis of Northampton, to Mr. William Simons, Merchantt in London. 
London, 1705. 

The Whole Trial and Examination of Mrs. Mary Hicks and her Daughter 
Elizabeth, But of Nine Years of Age, who were Condemn’d the last Assizes 
held at Huntingdon for Witchcraft, and there Executed on Saturday, the 
28th of July, 1716. . . the like never heard before ; their Behaviour with 
several Divines who came to converse with ’em whilst under their sentence 
of Death ; and last Dying Speeches and Confession at the place of execution. 
London, 1716. There is a copy in the Bodleian Library. 

(These last three pamphlets are almost certainly spurious.) 

A Terrible and seasonable Warning to young Men. Being a very particular 
and True Relation of one Abraham Joiner a young Man about 17 or 18 
Years of Age, living in Shakesby’s Walks in Shadwell, being a Ballast Man 
by Profession, who on Saturday Night last pick’d up a leud Woman, and 
spent what Money he had about him in Treating her, saying afterwards if 
she wowd have any more he must go to the Devil for it, and slipping out of 
her Company, he went to the Cock and Lyon in King Street, the Devil 
appear’d to him, and gave him a Pistole, . . . appointing to meet him the 
next Night at the World’s End at Stepney ; Also how his Brother perswaded 
him to throw the Money away, which he did ; but was suddenly Taken in a 
very strange manner ; so that they were fain to send for the Reverend Mr. 
Constable and other Ministers to pray with him, he appearing now to be very 
Penttent. . . . Printed for J. Dulton, near Fleet Street. Circa 1718. 

A Timely Warning to Rash and Disobedient Children Being a strange and 
wonderful Relation of a young Gentleman in the Parish of Stepheny in the 
Suburbs of London, that sold himself to the Devil for 12 years to have the 
Power of being revenged on his Father and Mother, and how his Time being 
expired, he lay in a sad and deplorable Condition to the Amazement af all 
Spectators. Edinburgh: Printed Anno 1721. 

The Kentish Miracle, Or, a Seasonable Warning to all Sinners Shewn in The 
Wonderful Relation of one Mary Moore, whose Husband died some time 
ago, and left her with two Children, who was reduced to great Want. . . 
How the Devil appeared to her, and the many great Offers he made to her to 
deny Christ, and enter into his Service ; and how she confounded Satan by 
powerful Arguments . . . with an Account how an Angel appeared to her 
and relieved her. . . . Edinburgh: Printed in the Year 1741. 

(This is probably a reprint. The style of the pamphlet seems some 
thirty or forty years earlier.) 


Z 


338 BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Trial of Thomas Colley, to which is annexed some Further Particulars of the 
Affair from the Mouth of John Osborne. 1751. (The trial took place at 
Hertford Assizes, 30 July, 1751.) 

Remarkable Confession and Last Dying Words of Thomas Colley. 1751. 


FRANCE 


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Paris, 1835. 

Bois, Jutes. Le Satanisme et la magie. Les Petites Religions de Paris. 

BoNNEMERE, EuGENE. Histoire des Camisardes des Cévennes. Paris, 1869. 

BoucHarD, H. E. Annette Taudet, ou les sorciers du Poitou au XIXme siécle 
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BovurRiagnon, ANTOINETTE. La Parole de Dieu. Amsterdam, 1683. 

La vie extérieure. Amsterdam, 1683. 

BourRNON, JACQUES. Chroniques de la Lorraine. Nancy, 1838. 

Br&VANNES, Ronanp. L’Orgie Satanique. Paris, 1904. 

BricauD, Joanny. J. K. Huysmans et le Satanisme. Paris, 1912. 

Huysmans, occultiste et magicien. Paris, 1913. 
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Premiers Elements d’Occultisme. Paris, 1912. 

CaNNAERT, J. B. Olim: procés des sorciéres en Belgique sous Philippe II 
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Cauzons, THEODORE DE. La Magie et la Sorcellerie en France. 4 vols. 
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Cuasioz, Fritz. Les sorciéres neuchatéloises. Neuchatel, 1868. 

CHRISTIAN, PauL (Paul Pitois). Histoire de la Magie. Paris, 1870. 

CLOSMADEUC, Dr. G. DE. Les sorciers de Lorient. Vannes, 1885. 

~ Desay, Dr. A. Histoire des sciences occultes. Paris, 1860. 

Dr LA MaRTINIERE. Voyage des Pais Septentrionaux. Paris, 1682. 

Discours sur la mort et condamnation de Charles de Franchillon Baron de 
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Drazor, H. R. Histoire tragique de trois magiciens qvi ont accvsé a la mort 
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ELVEN, Henry von. La Tradition. Vol. V. Paris, 1891. 

Fiaurer, Louis. Histoire du merveilleux dans les temps modernes. 4 vols. 
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FoNTENELLE, BERNARD LE BovieR DE. Histoire des oracles. Paris, 1687. 
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FourNIER, ALBAN. EHpidémie de Sorcellerie en Lorraine. Nancy, 1891. 

GARINET, JULES. Histoire de la magie en France. Paris, 1818. 

GARSAULT, F. ALEXANDRE. J aits des causes célébres et intéressantes. Amster- 
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Haron, AtFRED. La Tradition. Vol. VI. Paris, 1892. 

Histoire prodigieuse et espouvantable de plus de deux cens 50 sorciers et sorciéres 
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Paris, 1649. 

Histoire véritable des crimes horribles commis a Boulogne par deux moynes, deux 
gentils-hommes, et deux damoiselles, sur le S. Sacrement de ?Autel, quwils 
ont fait consumer a une Cheure et a un Oye, et sur trois enfants, qwils ont 
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Histoire véritable de Vexécrable Docteur Vanini, autrement nommé Luciolo. 
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JAF, LE Dr. Physonomie du vice. Paris, circa 1903. 

I’ Amour secret. Paris, circa 1904. 
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LapaAmg, Dr. Procés criminel de la derni re sorciére brulée a Genéve, le 6 avril, 
1652. Paris, 1888. 

LavancHy, L’ABBE J. M. Sabbats ou synagogues sur les bords du lac d’ Annecy. 
Annecy, 1885. 

LECANU, L’ABBE. Histoire de Satan. 1861. 

Lecoce, Ap. Les sorciers de la Beauce. Chartres, 1861. 

LEMOINE, JuLES. La Tradition. Vol. VI. Paris, 1892. 

Les Enfers Lubriques. Paris, circa 1900. 

Les GOUVELLES, LE VicomTE HIppoLyTEe. Apparitions dune dme du Purga- 
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Jeanne Audouis [Sceur Marie des Sept Douleurs]). 

Les sorceleries de Henry de Valois, et les oblations qu’il faisoit au Diable dans 
le bois de Vincennes. 15 pp. Paris, 1589. 

(This attack on Henry III has been reprinted several times ; as by 
Cimber and Darignon Archives curieuses de Histoire de France. Vol. 
XII, and L’Estoile, Journal de Henri III. 

Lintiz, ARTHUR. The Worship of Satan in Modern France. 1896. 

LovisE, Tu. De la sorcellerie et de la justice criminelle a Valenciennes. 
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Magie. 2 vols. Paris, circa 1904. 

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Tradition, La. Vol. V contains Van Elvan’s Les Procés de sorcellerte au 
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Un Bapaup (Paul Marrin). Coup d’eil sur la Magie as XI Xme siécle. Paris, 
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FRANCE: SPECIAL CASES 


Madeleine Bavent 


Yvewtn, Dr. Hxamen de la possession des religieuses de Louviers. Paris, 1643. 

Responce a V Examen de la possession des religieuses de Louviers, n.d. 

Récit véritable de ce qui s’est fait et passé a Louviers, touchant les religieuses 
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Lr GAUFFRE. LFzxorcismes de plusieurs religieuses de la ville de Louwiers en 
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Le Breton, JEAN. La défense de la vérité touchant la possession des religieuses 
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DELANGLE. Procés-verbal de Monsieur le Penitencier d’Evreux. Paris, 1643. 

Trois questions touchant Vaccident arrivé aux religieuses de Louviers, n.d. 

DESMARETS, PztrE. Histoire de Magdelaine Bavent, religieuse du monastére 
de Saint-Louis de Louviers avec sa confession générale et testamentaire, ou 
elle déclare les abominations, impietez et sacriléges qu’elle a pratiqué et veu 
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Humier. Discours théologique sur Vhistoire de Magdelaine Bavent. Nyort, 
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340 BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Morin, Louis Renk. Histoire de Louviers. Rouen, 1822. 

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Marie Benoist, La Bucaille 


Arrest donné par la chambre ordonée par le Roy au temps des vacations contre 
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La Cadiére and Pére Girard 


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Factum pour Marie Catherine Cadiére contre le Pére J-B. Girard, jésuite, o& ce 
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Louis, BisHor or Touton. Mémoires des faits qui se sont passés sous les yeux 
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Les veritables sentiments de Mademoiselle Cadiére ... écrits de sa propre 
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Boyer bD’AIGUILLES. Conclusions de M. le procureur général du rot... au 
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Leonora Galigat 


La Juste punition de Lycaon, Florentin, Marquis d Ancre. Paris, 1617. 

Arrest de la Cour de Parlement contre le marechal d’ Ancre et sa femmé, prononce 
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Harangve de la marquise @’ Ancre, estant sur Vechaffaut. 1617. 


Bref récit de ce qui s’est passé pour Vexécution . . . de la marquise d Anchre. 
Paris, 1617. 

Discours sur le mort de Eléonor Galligay, femme de Conchine, marquis d’Ancre. 
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La Médée de la France, dépeinte en personne de la Marguerite d’Ancre. Paris, 
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Louis Gaufridi and Madeleine de la Palud 


Arrest de la Covr de Parlement de Provence, portant condamnation contre 
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Confession faicte par Messire Lovys Gaufridt, prestre en l’église Accoules de 
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LENORMANT DE CHIREMONT, J. Histoire veritable, mémorable de ce qui c'est 
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GInESTE, Raout. Louis Gaufridi et Magdeleine de la Palud. Paris, 1904. 
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BIBLIOGRAPHY 341 


Urbain Grandier 


Interrogatoire de maistre Urbain Grandier, prétre, curé de Saint Pierre-du- 
Marché de Loudun, avec les confrontations des religieuses possédées contre 
ledict Grandier. Paris, 1634. 

Arrest et condamnation de mort contre Maistre Vrbain Grandier . . . atteint 
et convaincu du crime de magie. Pais, 1634. 

Relation veritable de ce qui s’est passé & la mort du curé de Loudun, bruslé tout 
vif le vendredi 18 aoust 1634. 

TRANQUILLE, PirE. Véritable relation des justes procédures observées au faict 
de la possession des Ursulines de Loudun. Paris, 1634. 

La démonomanie de Lodun, qui montre la véritable possession des religieuses 
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Duncan, Marc. Discours de la possession des religieuses Ursulines de Loudun. 
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Récit véritable de ce qui s’est passé & Loudun contre Maistre Urbain Grandier. 
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La Foucautpimre, M. ve. Les effets miraculeux de Véglise romain sur les 
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Relation de la sortie du démon Balam du corps de la mére prieure des ursulines 
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Surin, Pire. Lettre écrite a Monseigneur l’ Evéque de Poictiers par un des 
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La gloire de St. Joseph, victorieux des principaux démons de la possession des 
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Lucut, Pre Matuieu pre. Les interrogatoires et exorcismes nouvellement 
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SAINTE-CATHERINE. Le grand pécheur converty, représenté dans les deux estats 
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La M&NARDAYE, M. DE. Examen et discussion critique de UV histoire des diables 
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Histoire abrégée de la possession des Ursulines de Loudun. Paris, 1828. 

Dumas, ALEXANDRE. Crimes célébres. 6 vols Paris, 1839-41. (A highly 
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Sauzt, CHARLES. Etude médico-historique sur les possédées de Loudun. Paris, 
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Lericue, L’AsBt. Etudes sur les possessions en général et sur celle de Loudun 
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Lrecut, Dr. G. Documents pour servir a Vhistoire médicale des possédées de 
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Urbain Grandier et les possédées de Loudun. Paris, 1880. 

JEAN DE Porrttrers. Les diables de Loudun. Paris, 1878. 


S. Joan of Arc 


LENGLET-DuFRESNOoY, L’ABBE N. Histoire de Jeanne d’Arc. Paris, 1753-4. 

GuILBERT. LEloge historique de Jeanne d’Arc. Rouen, 1803. 

Bucnon, J. A. Chronique et procés de la Pucelle d’Orleans. Paris, 1817. 

LE Brun DES CHARMETTES. Histoire de Jeanne d’Arc. Paris, 1817. 

QUATREMPRE-Roissy, J. A. Quelques piéces curieuses sur le mariage prétendu 
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QUICHERAT, JULES. Apergus nouveaux sur V histoire de Jeanne d’ Arc. Paris, 1841. 

Relation inédite sur Jeanne d’Arc. Orleans, 1879. 

BEAUREGARD, B. DE. Histoire de Jeanne d’Arc. Paris, 1847. 

MIcCHELET, JuLES. Jeanne d’Arc. Paris, 1853. 

BRIERE DE Botsmont, Dr. A. De Vhallucination historique, ou étude . . . sur 
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VALLET DE VIRIVILLE. Procés de condamnation de Jeanne @’ Arc. Paris, 1867. 

O’Remy, E. Les Deux Procés de condamnation ...de Jeanne @ Arc, 
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RoBILLARD DE BEAUREPAIRE. Recherches sur le procés de condamnation de 
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CHEVALIER, A. Jeanne d’Arc. Bio-Bibliographie. Montbeliard, 1878. 

Luce, Stmton. Jeanne d’Arc a Domremy. Paris, 1886. 

Lto Taxit, G. J. P. and Fescu, Paun. Le Martyr de Jeanne d’Arc. Paris, 
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BEAUREPAIRE, CHARLES DE. Notes sur les juges et les assesseurs du procés 
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La Voisin and her Confederates 


DuFEY DEL’ YonneE. La Bastille, mémoires pour servir a UV histoire secrete. . 
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CLiMENT, PrerRE. La police de Paris sous Louis XIV. Paris, 1866. 

RAVAISSON, FrANcoIs. Archives de la Bastille. 17 vols. Paris, 1866-74. 

MontTiFAuD, M. bE. Racine et la Voisin. Paris, 1878. 

LoIsELEUR, JuLtEs. La Saint-Barthélemy, Vaffaire des poisons et Mme de 
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Jourpy, G. La Oitadelle de Besangon .. . ou épilogue del’ Affaire des poisons. 
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Lecut, Dr. G. Medécins et empoisonneurs au XVIIme siécle. Paris, 1890. 

Nass, Dr. L. Les empoisonnements sous Louis XIV. Paris, 1898. 

FuNcK-BRENTANO, F. Le drame des poisons. Paris, 1899. 


Palladism 


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Gilles de Rais 


Mevuret, F.C. Annales de Nantes. Nantes, circa 1840. 

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STENDHAL, H. BEYLE. Mémoires d’un touriste. Paris, 1854. 

GuERAUD, ARMAND. Notice sur Gilles de Rais. Rennes, 1855. 

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Huysmans, J. K. La Magie en Poitou. Gilles de Rais. 1899. 


The Templars 


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ITALY 


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Monnier, M. La Camorra. Paris, 1863. 

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Vizztnt, A. La Mafia. Rome, 1880. 


NORTH AMERICA 


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Urnam, CLEMENT WENTWoRTH. History of Salem Witchcraft. 2 vols. 

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(This is mainly a compendium of C. W. Upham’s larger work.) 

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GERMANY 


BucHINGER. Julius Echter von Melpresbrunn. 

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GLAUBRECHT, OTTO. Die Schreckensjahre von Lindheim. Stuttgart, 1886. 

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SoLDAN-HEPPE. Geschichte der Hexenprozesse. 2 vols. Stuttgart, 1880. 

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Steck, Rupotrr. Die Akten des Jetzerprozesses nebst dem Defensorium. 
Basel, 1904. 

STEINER. Geschichte der Stads Dieburg. Darmstadt, 1829. 

TRUMMER, C. Vortrdge tiber Tortur, Hexenverfolgungen, Vehmgerichte, etc., in 
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Voix, Fr. Hexen in der Landvogtei Ortenau und Reichstadt Offenburg. 

WITZSCHEL, AueustT. Sitten, Sagen, und Gevrduche aus Thuringen. Vienna, 
1878. 

Wunderbarliche Geheimnussen der Zauberey. 4to. 1630. 

ZINGERLE, Ia@naz, Dr. Barbara Pachlerin, die Sarnthaler Hexe. Tnnsbruck, 
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Z* 


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SPIRITISM 


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INDEX 


Abraham, Statue of, 183 

Accommodation theory, false, 203 

Ad Abolendam, Bull of Lucius III, 17 

4flian, 118, 158 

Mneas sacrifices to Night, 158 

Attius, 158 

African witchcraft, 163 

Agrippa, Cornelius, 103, 296 

Akiba, Rabbi, 190 

Albertus Magnus, Blessed, 64 

Albigenses, 17, 27, 28, 62, 87 

Alchemist, The, 304-5 

Aldonistz, 17 

Alduin, Count, 26 

Alexander III, 17, 18 

Alexander IV, 13, 43, 64 

Alphonsus, King of Arragon (Greene), 
287 

Alphonsus Liguori, 8., 41, 68-9, 92, 
126, 203 

Alphonsus Rodriguez, S.J., 126 

Ambrose, S., 14, 117, 176, 180, 224 

Anania, Lorenzo, 128, 167 

Andreas, S., of Rinn, 162, 197 

Anne Catherine Emmerich, 126 

Antony, S. (the Great), 202 

Apollodorus, 201 4 

Apuleius, Lucius, 111, 116, 184, 296 

Aquila of Pontus, 190 

Aquinas, 8S. Thomas, 45, 64, 91, 128, 
176, 296 

Arab witches, 5 

Aretzus, 202 

Ariberto, Archbishop of Milan, 16 

Aristophanes, 98, 200 

Aristotle, 296 

Arnauld Amaury, 18 

Arnobius, 99 

Arrows, Divination with, 182-3 

Asceticus, heretical treatise, 22 

Asmodeus, 190 

Asperges, mock, at witches’ mass, 154 

Athanasius, §., 224 

Augustine of Hippo, S., 13, 64, 100, 
128, 176, 180, 184, 296 

Aupetit, Pierre, 149, 152 

Azor, 8.J., Juan, 92 


Bacon, Lord, 65 
Bagnolenses, 17° 
Balaam, 174, sqq. 


Balac, 174, sqq. 


Baltimore, Second Council of, 61 

Balzac, Honoré de, 263 

Bancroft, Richard, Archbishop of 
Canterbury, 229-30 

Baptism at the Sabbat, 84-5 

Barbagli, Domenica (ecstatic), 126 

Barrett, Sir William, 255, 264, 268 

Basil, S., 180, 224 

Basque Sabbats, 112-13, 115 

Basques, Les, 311 

Bavent, Madeleine, 87, 149, 153, 155, 
157 

Becquet, Isabel, 81 

Beghards, 17 

Bekhten, The Prince of, 198-200 

Belon, Jean, 149 

Belphegor, 307 

Benedict XII, 65 

Benedict XIV, 69, 92, 223 

Benedict, S., 117, 222-23 

Benedict, S., Medal of, 240 

Benedictus (a sorcerer), 148 

Bernard of Como, 120, 129 

Berry, Mr. George F., 264 

Besancon, The Holy Winding Sheet 
of, 224 

Besinnet, Ada, 266 

Billuart, O.P., Charles René, 92 

Binsfield, Bishop Pierre, 61, 94 

Birth of Merlin, The, 287, 306 

Bishop, Bridget, 76, 146 

Black book or roll of witches, 85-6 

Blackstone’s Commentaries, 63 

Blessing of the Waters (Epiphany), 
220 

Blocksburg, The, 114, 115 

Blockula, 121 

Blood used to seal compacts, 67-8 

Bocal, Pierre, 149 

Bodin, Jean, 1, 65, 94, 114, 123, 145, 
157, 296 

Bogomiles, 17, 22, 23, 27 

Boguet, Henri, 5, 6, 58, 94, 97, 113, 
116, 117, 122, 130-3, 139, 141, 
145, 157 

Bois, Jules, 311 

Bonacina, Martino, 92 

Bonaventura, S., 64, 91, 128 

Boulanger, General, 264 

Boullé, Thomas, 150 


347 


348 


Bourignon, Antoinette, 70, 83 

Bournement, Abbé, 150 

Bouvier, Jean-Baptist, Bishop of Le 
Mans, 92-3 

Boyle, Robert, 65 

Brey, Abbé Charles, 240-3 

Bricaud, Joanny, 28 

Brignoli, 96 

Broomstick, The Witches’, 121-4 

Browne, Sir Thomas, 65 

Brutus of Alba, 302 

Bulls dealing with sorcery, 46 

Burchard of Worms, 100, 297 

Burner, Thiébaut and Joseph, The 
Possession of, 238—43 

Burroughs, George, 84, 147 

Busembaum, 8.J., Hermann, 106 

Buskitt, Dr. F. G., 27 

Bussy @ Ambois, 305 


C., Stella, 266 

Cesarius, S., of Arles, 14 

Cainites, 21 

Caius Marius, 301-2 

Caligula, 55 

Calmet, Augustin Dom, 133 

Camisards, 62, 78 

Candles, black, used at Sabbat, 139 

Canidia, 158 

Carino, the Manichee, 17 

Carpocrates, 22 

Oarrére, Mlle Eva, 267 

Carrier, Martha, a Salem witch, 124, 
145 

Castell of Perseverance, The, 279 

Castelvicz, Countess, 267 

Castro, Alfonso de, 94, 128, 167 

Oathari, 17, 23, 27, 37 

Catherine de Medici, 176 

Catherine de Ricci, 8., 126 

Catherine of Siena, S., 45, 126 

Charles IX of France, causes black 
mass to be performed, 148 

Charles de Sezze, Bl., 126 

Charolais, Madame de, 150 

Chesne, Pierre du, 148 

Cincture of S. Monica, 82-3 

Clement XI, 63 

Clement of Alexandria, 99 

Cockcrow, Sabbat ends at, 117-18 

Colette, S., 126 

College, Stephen, 298 

Colley, Archdeacon, 260 

Collin de Plancy, 158 

Coman, Widow, 76 

Concorrezenses, 17 

Consolamentum, Manichzan rite, 23 

Contract of witches with the Devil, 
65-70, 81 

Cook, Florence, 260 

Cord of 8. Francis, 82 

Cornelius, Pope, 207 


INDEX 


Cornelius & Lapide, 176 

Covens, number of members in, 40; 
organization of, 83 

Cox, Julian, 5, 123 

Craddock, Mr., 267 

Craisson, Mgr., 92 

Crespet, Pére, 128, 167 

Crookes, F.R.S., Sir William, 124, 
246, 260, 268 

Cross, Recovery of the True, 56 

Cullender, Rose, 76 

Custom of the Country, The, 305 

Cybele, The rites of, 201-2 

Cyprian of Antioch, S., 69 

Cyril, 8., of Jerusalem, 224 

Cyril, S., of Alexandria, 182 


D’Abadie, Jeannette, 81, 84 

Dame Dobson, 302-3 

Dance, at the Sabbat, 139-43; Re- 
ligious, 140; at Seville (Los 
Seises), 140-1 

Danzus, Lambert, 58 

Darling, Thomas, 226 


’ Darrel, John, 224-30 


Davenport brothers, 259 

David, Abbé, 150 

Davies, Sir John, 123 

Deane, Mrs., 266 

Deborah (Debbora), Song of, 175 

Dee, Dr. John, 227 

De Lancre, 58, 63, 87, 94, 98, 118, 
120, 123, 141, 144, 149, 150, 151, 
153, 154, 159 

Delrio, 8.J., Martin Anton, 71, 93, 
116, 137, 296 

Demaratus, 200 

Demdike, Elizabeth, 84, 294, 299 

Demosthenes, 200 

Denobilibus, 149 

De Rebus Uenereis ..., 92 

Devil, a man, Grand Master of the 
Sabbat, 7; theological teaching 
concerning, 51-4; in animal 
disguise at the Sabbat, 134-7 

Devil’s Charter, The, 307-8 

Devil is an Ass, The, 307 

Dianic cult, imaginary, 43 

Dido and Aineas, 302 

Dinarchus, 200 

Diocletian, 13, 22, 36 

Dionysus, The rites of, 201-2 

Dioscorides, 158 

Divine, men who have claimed to be, 
55-7 

Divining Cup of Joseph, The, 183-4} 

Domitian, 55 

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan, 235, 255, 
268 

Dryden, 301 

Dualistic religion, 21 

Ducrot, General, 245 


INDEX 


Duke and No Duke, 287 

Duke of Guise, The, 301 

Duny, Amy, 76 

Dupanloup, Mgr., Bishop of Orleans, 
244-5 

D’Urfey, Tom, 78 


Echalar, Juan de (sorcerer), 159 

Edeline, Guillaume, 66 

Edmonds, John Worth, 259 

Egbo sorcerers, 136—7 

Eglinton, William, 60, 260, 262 

Egyptian, belief in possession, 198-- 
200; magicians and Moses, 59 

Eicher, 8.J., Father, 241 

Elbel, O.F.M., Benjamin, 92 

Eldred, Charles, 261 

Eleusinian Mysteries, 44 

Elich, Philip Ludwig, 143, 145, 296 

Eliezar, 194—5 

Elipandus of Tolido, 15, 56 

Elymas the sorcerer, 193 

Empress of Morocco, The (Duffett), 
302 

Endor, The Witch of, 176—84 

Ephrem Syrus, 8., Doctor Ecclesiz, 
224 

Ermanno of Parma, 17 

Erto (medium), 266—7 

Etheridge, 8.J., Father John, 259 

Euchites, 22 

Eugenius IV, 83 

Euripides, 201-2 

Evagrius Scholasticus, 100 

Executions, Last European, 46 

Exorcism, The rite of, 209-19; A 
shorter, 220; Baptismal, 220 

Exorcists, Anglican canon concerning, 
230-3; Attempted by Puritan 
ministers, 232; Minor Order of, 
207; Ordination of, 207-9 

Eznih of Kolb, 27 


Fabre des Essarts, 28 

Fair Maid of the Inn, The, 305 

False Christs, 57 

Familiars, animal, 40, 41 

Farnabie, Thomas, 159 

Fascinum, 98-101 

Fatal Jealousie, The, 300-1 

Faust (Goethe), 103 

Faust Legend, Dramatic versions of 
the, 280-4 

Feasting at the Sabbat, 144-5 

Felix of Urgel, heretic, 15 

Fian, Doctor, and his confederates, 
72, 85, 88, 116, 124, 139, 142 

Fiard, Abbé, 150 

Filliucci, 8.J., Vincenzo, 92 

Fox family (mediums), 256-9 

Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, 285-6 


349 


Francis, Elizabeth, 102 
Francis of Assisi, §., 125 
Francis Xavier, S., 126 
Fugairon, Dr., of Lyons, 28 


Gallicinium, 117 

Garrison, William Lloyd, 250 

Gasparin, Agénor de, 263 

Gaufridi, Louis, 72-3, 82, 84—5, 116, 
144, 149, 155 

Gazariens, 37 

Gemma Galgani, 126 

Gerard Majella, 8., 126, 240 

Gerson, 65 

Gesner, 158 

Gil, of Santarem, Blessed, 69 

Giles Corey, 310 

Gilles de Rais, 33, 34, 36, 89, 148, 160 

Glanvill, 65 

Glossarium Eroticum, 99 

Gnostic, The first, 193 

Gnostic Church of Lyons, 29 

Gnostics, 20 

‘“‘ Goats, The ”’ (secret society), 136 

Godelmann, Johann, 297 

Gérres, Johann Joseph, 94, 127 

Gothescalch of Fulda, heretic, 15, 16 

Gottardo of Marsi, 17 : 

Grandier, Urbain, 73 

Greek heroes, The cult and relics of, 
30, 31 

Greeley, Horace, 259 

Gregory VII, 8., 19 

Gregory IX, 20 

Gregory XIII, 83 

Gregory XV, 65 

Gregory, S., of Nyssa, 178, 180 

Gregory of Nanzianzus, S., 99, 224 

Grilland, Paul, 94, 122, 127, 128, 145, 
167, 297 

Grimoires, 11, 68 

Guardia, El santo Nino de la, 162 

Guazzo, Francesco Maria, 65, 81-9, 
95, 128, 137, 141, 144, 145,-167, 
297 

Guibourg, Abbé, 89 (and _ his con- 
federates), 150, 153, 160 

Guldenstubbe, Baron de, 263 

Guthrie, Helen, a Forfar witch, 26 


Hare, Robert, 259 

Harold of Gloucester, 162 
Harsnett, Samuel, 229-30 
Hartley, Edmund, 227 
Haydon, Mrs. (medium), 259 
Heliogabalus, 55 

Henry II of England, 16 
Heraclius, 56 

Herod Agrippa I, 55 
Herodas, 98-9 

Hilarion, S., 202 

Hinemar, Archbishop of Rheims, 15 


350 


Hippolytus, 185 

Holland, Mrs. (medium), 266 

Holt, Lord Chief Justice, 102 

Home, Daniel D. (medium), 125, 246, 
259, 263 : 

Homer, 201 

Hopkins, Matthew, 4, 102 

Horace, 296 

Horner, Elizabeth, 76 

Hosts, as used at witches’ mass, 15, 
155, 156-7; Stolen from 
churches, 156 

Hugh of Lincoln, 8., 195 

Humiliati, 17 

Hush, Mr. Cecil, 267 

Hutchinson, Bishop Francis, 101-2, 
109 

Huysmans, J. K., 29, 151, 264 

Hydesville, Home of Fox family, 
256-7 

Hydromantia, 184 


If It Be Not Good, The Divel is in tt, 
306-7 

Tgnatius Loyola, S., 126 

Illfurt, Case of possession at, 238-43 

Incense, noxious weeds burned for, in 
witches’ rites, 156 

Incubi, 89-103 

Indian-Queen, The, 301 

Innocent III, 18 

Innocent IV, 20 

Innocent VIII, 12, 43, 44, 88, 94 

Institutiones Theologie Mystice 
(Schram), 93 

Treland, Witchcraft in, 25 

Isidore of Seville, 8., 13 


James the Fourth (Greene), 286 

Janicot, Basque deity, 42 

Jerome, S., 179, 182, 202 

Jetzer, Brother, a Jacobin of Berne, 4 

Joan, S., of Arc, false theories con- 
cerning, 33, 34 

Johannites, 148 

John XXII, 64 

John Chrysostom, 8., 13 

John George II, Prince-Bishop of 
Bamberg, 24 

John of the Cross, S., 45, 126 

Jonson, Ben, 296 

Joseph of Cupertino, 8., 126-7 

Josephins, 17 

Jovio Paolo, 103 

Judas Iscariot, 21 

Juno Lacinia, 200 

Justin Martyr, S8., 224 

Juvenal, 159, 296 


Kembter, C.P.R., Adrian, 172, 195 
Khlysti, 56 
Khonsu, god of Thebes, 198-200 


INDEX 


Khosroes (Khusran) IT of Persia, 56 

Kincaid, John, 74 

King Henry VI (Part II), 287-9 

Kluski, Franek, 266 

Kosém (magician), 186 

Kyteler, Dame Alice, 25, 103, 124, 
158 


Laban and Jacob, 186 

La-Bas (Huysmans), 151 

Lactantius, 99-100, 224 

Lancashire Witches, The (Ainsworth), 
309 

Lancashire Witches, The (Dibdin), 309 

Lancashire Witches, The (Fitzball), 
309-10 

Lancashire Witches, The (Shadwell), 
296-9, 303 

Langton, Walter, Bishop of Coventry, 
138 


Laruatus (= crazed), 201 

Late Lancashire Witches, The, 292-6 

Leaf, Mr. Horace, 265 

Lecollet, Abbé, 150 

Lemmi, Adriano, 8 

Leo IV, Pope, S., 193 

Leo XIII, 28, 90, 220 

Levitation, 124-7, 246 

Liber Penitentialis of S. Theodore, 6, 
88, 134 

Life of Mother Shipton, The, 299-300 

Lodge, Sir Oliver, 268 

Louis XIV, 160, 161 

Love for Love, 80, 303-4 

Lucan, 296 

Luciferians, 21 

Lucius III, 17 

Luckey Chance, The, 303 

Lunacy, Induced by Spiritism, 253-6 

Lusty Juventus, 279 

Luther, Martin, 231 


Macbeth, 289-90 

Machiavelli Niccolo, 187 

Magdalena de la Cruz, 69—70 

Magico Prodigioso, El, 310 

Maiolo, Simon, 61 

Malleus Maleficarum, 24, 63, 94, 127, 
129, 160, 296 

Manasses, King of Juda, 181 

Mandezans, 148 

Mandragola, La, 187-8, 197 

Mandrakes, 187-8 

Mani, 21, 22 

Mania, Roman goddess, 201 

Manichees, 14, 15, 17, 20, 21, 25, 26, 
27, 32, 36, 148 

Mankind, 279 

Manlius, 103 

Margaret of Cortona, 8., 202 

Maria Maddalena de Pazzi, 8., 126 

Marion, Elie, 62, 78 


‘~~ 


INDEX 


Mark, The Devil’s, 70—5, 89 

Martin, S., of Tours, 14 

Mary of Nimmegen, 284-6 

Masks worn at the Sabbat, 136-7 

Masque of Queens, 296, 304 

Mass, mock, 87 

Mass of 8. Sécaire, 156—7 

Mass, Witches’, origin of, 
liturgy of, 145-57 

Maternus, Julius Firmicus, 99 

Mather, Cotton, 83, 145 

Maurus, O.S.B., 8., 223-4 

May-fires, 112 

Mazzolini, O.P., Sylvester, 142, 296 

Medal of 8. Benedict, 222-3 

Melancthon, 103, 128 

Menander (heretic), 193 

Merry Devil of Edmonton, The, 306 

Messalians, 22 

Michaelis, Sebastian Ven., 157 

Middleton, Thomas, 9, 108 

Midsummer bonfires, 43 

Midsummer-Night’s Dream, 287 

Muller (medium), 261-2 

Missal, Devil’s, 87 

Montanus, 56 

Montespan, Madame de, 160 

More, George, 227-9 

Moses, 59, 173 

Moses, William Stanton, 125, 259 

Mother Bombie, 280 

Mousseaux, Gougenot des, 94 

Munnings, Mother, 102 

Murray, Miss M. A., 31, 32, 33, 40, 41, 
43: 43, 44, 45, 75 

Mystery Plays, 276-8 

Mystique Divine, La (Ribet), 90, 110 


42-3 ; 


Naasseni, 21 

Name given to witches, 85 

Naudé, Gabriel, 297 

Neo-Gnostic Church, 28 

Neri, 8. Philip, 44 

Nevillon, Silvain, 84 

Newes from Scotland, 9 

Nicander, 158, 201 

Nicephones Calixtus, 100 

Nicetas, 99 

Nicniven, ‘‘ a notabill sorceres,’’ 7, 85 

Nider, O.P., John, 94, 296 

Nigramansir, 278-9 

Nipple, Supernumerary, 75—7 

Norbert, S., 39, 49, 50 

North-Berwick Kirk, 116, 121, 138, 
142 

Numa, Second King of Rome, 184 


Odour of Sanctity, 45 

(Edipus (Dryden and Lee), 301 
Ointment, Flying, 6 

Old Wives’ Tales, The (Peele), 286—7 
Ophites, 21, 148 


Origen, 180 

Orlando Furioso (Greene), 286 
Orthodox Eucharist, 147-8 
Osculum infame, 137-9 

Ovid, 296 

Owen, Rev. G. Vale, 255, 264—5 


P., Stanislava, 267 

Palladian Temple (Templum Palladi- 
cum), discovered in Rome, 152-3 

Palladino Eusapia, 267 

Palmer, John, a wizard, 76 

Palud, Madeleine de la, 82, 149, 154, 
157 

Paolo de Caspan, O.P., Fra, 119 

Pasagians, 17 

Patarini, 17 

Paterson, a pricker, 74-5 

Paul, S., 193—4, 206—7 

Paul I., Pope S., 193 

Paul of the Cross, S., 126 

Pauliciani, 17, 23 

Pauper, Marcelline, 145-6 

Pausanias, 187 

Pauvres de Lyon, 17 

Pax, burlesqued by witches, 155 

Peach, Father Edward, 234-5 

Peckham, Sir George, 224 

Pecoraro, Nino, 267 

Pelagius I, 14 

Pefia, Francesco, 127 

Pentheus, 200 

Peratez, 21 

Peter Damian, S., 128, 167 

Peter, S., 191-3 

Peter of Verona, S., 17 

Peter Parenzo, 8., 17 

Peters, Mr. Vout, 266 

Petronius Arbiter, 99, 109, 187, 296 

Pheedra, 201 

Philip I of France, 19 

Philip Neri, 8., 44, 126 

Philip the Deacon, 191 

Philippi, a medium healed at, 206—7 

Picard, Maturin, 150 

Pike, Albert, of Charleston, 8 

Piper, Mrs., 266 

Pius IX, 246 

Plautus, 201 

Pliny, 118, 159, 296 

Plutarch, 200 

Poirier, Possession of Héléne-Jose- 
phine, 243-8 

Ponzinibio, Giovanni Francesco, 127, 
166, 167 

Porta, Baptista, 296 

Possession of devils in the Gospels, 
191, 203-6 

Prelati, Antonio Francesco, 148 _ 

Prickers of witches, Official, 74—5 

Priscillian of Avila, heretic, 14 

Propertius, 296 


352 


Prosecution of witches by the Cesars, 
11,12 

Protestant exorcism, 232-3 

Prudentius, 117 

Prynne, William, 282 

Psychic Science, British College of, 
235-8 

Pythagoras, 200 


Quintus Fulvius, 200 


Raimond Rocco, 126 

Rameses II, 198-9 

Raphael, S., 190 

Read, Mary, 76 

Red Book of Appin, 86—7 
Regino of Prim, 121 

Reid, Thom, 7 

Relics, The cultus of, 31 
Religion of the Manichees, The, 27 
Remy, Nicolas, 118, 128, 167 
Richet, Professor Charles, 268 
Robert I of France, 25 

Robert le Diable, 310 

Robert of Bury 8S. Edmunds, 162 
Robinson, Anne, 4 
Rocheblanche, Abbé de, 150 
Rosary, The Holy, 82 

Rothe, Anne, 260 

Rousseau, Abbé, 158 

Rowley, William, 11 

Rudolph, 8., of Berne, 162 


S., Willy (medium), 267 

Sabazius, 111 

Sabbat, Dances at the, 139-43; De- 
rivation of name, 111; Feasting 
at, 148-5; Liturgy of, 145-7; 
Methods of travelling to the, 
118-33; Music at the, 142-3; 
When held, 111-6; Where held, 
113-7 

Sacrament, Diabolical, 
witches, 146—7 

Sacrifice, of animals, 158-60; of 
children, 88—9, 160; of the God, 
hypothetical], 33-6 

S. Patrick for Ireland, 305-6 

Salmanticenses, 91—2, 145 

Samuel, Ghost of, 178-81 

Saturday, why no Sabbat held on, 116 

Saul, 202 

Sawyer, Elizabeth, 58-9, 76, 102, 
290-2, 308 

Scapular, Carmelite, 82 

Sceva, The seven sons of, 194 

Schott, S.J., Gaspar, 94 

Schram, O.S.B., Dominic, 93 

Schrenck-Notzing, Baron von, 267 

Scot, Reginald, 69, 88, 123 

Secret Commonwealth, The (Robert 
Hink), 71 


of Salem 


INDEX 


Seneca, 296 

Sethians, 21 

Seven Champions of Christendom, The, 
287 

Seville Cathedral, Ritual dance at, 

Shadwell, Mrs., 301 

Shadwell, Thomas, 75, 296-9 — 

Shrill voice of ghosts, 177-8 

Sillé, Gilles de, 148 

Silvester of Abula, 128, 167 

Simon Abeles, 162 

Simon Magus, 20, 191 

Simon, 8., of Trent, 162 

Sinistrari, Ludovico Maria, 65, 71, 78, 
95, 161 

Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes, 287 

Sisto da Siena, 128, 167 

Slade (a medium), 260 

Soir de Folie, Un (revue), 151, 311 

Somers, William, 227-30 

Sophonisba (Lee), 301 

Sophonisba (Marston), 305 

Sorciére Canidie, La, 311 

Sorciére, La (Dupetit-Méré and Du- 
cagne), 310 

Sorciére, La (Sardou), 311 

Soulis, Lord William, of Hermitage, 7 

Speronistz, 17 

Spina, Bartolomeo de, 119, 128, 167, 
297 

Spiritism, Condemned by the Catholic 
Church, 268—9 

Spiritism, Some present-day activi- 
ties of, 264—5 

Spiritistic churches and assemblies, 
264-5, 266 

Spiritualism, its present-day mean- 
ing, 254-5 

Sprenger, James, vide Malleus Male- 
jficarum 

Stapleton, Thomas, 46 

Starchie, Nicholas, 227 

Statius, 178 

Stearne, John, 102, 108 

Stewart, Francis, Earl of Bothwell, 8 

Stewart, Mrs. Josie K., 266 

Strabo, 184, 201 

Stridtheckh, Christian, 115 

Stumpf, Peter-Paul, Bishop of Stras- 
burg, 241 

Suarez, 8S.J., Francesco, 52, 54, 68, 91 

Summis desiderantes, Bull of Innocent 
VIII, 12, 43, 88 

Symons, Arthur, 141 


Tacitus, 296 

Tamburini, 8.J., Thomas, 92 
Tanchelin and his anarchy, 36—40, 49 
Targum of Jonathan, 190 

Tartarins, 17 

Tartary, Wizards in, 59, 60 


INDEX 


Tea-leaves used in divination, 185 

Tempest, The, 287, 289 

Templars, The, 26, 138, 147-8 

Templiers, Les, 310 

Teraphim, 189-90 

Teresa, S., 126 

Tertullian, 180 

Theodore, 8., of Canterbury, 6, 88, 134 

Theodoret, 99, 176, 179 

Theodosius IT, 23 

Thurston, 8.J., Father, 63 

Thyraus, 8.J., Hermann, 93 

Tibullus, 99, 296 

Titivillus, 279-80 

Toads, associated with Sabbat, 158-9 

Tobias, 190-1 

Tomson, Mrs. Elizabeth A., 266 

Trappolin Creduto Principe, 287 

Travers-Smith, Mrs., 265, 267 

Trial of Witchcraft, The (John Bell), 
70-1 


Tuileries, Séance at, 263 

Turrecremata (Torquemada), Juan 
de, 128 

T'wo Noble Kinsmen, The, 278 

T'yrannick Love, 301 


Veo Mr. 267 

Valentine (medium), 261 
Valentinian I, 22 

Valentinian IT, 22 

Valentinian III, 23 
Valentinians, heretical sect, 29 
Valentinus, heretic, 29 
Vampire, Le, 310 

Vaudois, 26, 37, 87 

Vaughan, S.J., Bernard, 254-5 
Vearncombe, Mr., 266 

Vergil, 176, 296 

Veronica Guiliani, 8., 126 
Verrall, Mrs., 266 


353 


Vestments worn at witches’ mass, 
153-4 

Victor III Bl. (Desiderius), 224 

Vio Gaetani, Tommaso de, 128, 167 

Visigoth code, 36 

Voisin, Catherine la, 89, 160 

Voisin, Marguerite la, 153 


Voodooism, 26, 158, 163 


Walburga, S., 111-2 

Waldenses, 17, 87 

Walpurgis-Nacht, Die, 111 

Ward, Seth, Bishop of Exeter, 233 

Wars of Cyrus, The, 287 

Weir, Major Thomas, 34-6, 120 

Wenham, Jane, 102 

Werner, 8., of Oberwesel, 162 

Weston, 8.J., William, 224—5 

Weyer, John, 103, 296 

Wilde, Oscar, Alleged script by, 267-8 

William of Paris, boy martyr, 162 

William, S., of Norwich, 162 

Williams, Mrs. (medium), 261 

Willibrod, S., Ritual at shrine of, 140 

Winer, 203 

Wise Woman of Hogsdon, 303 

Witch, The (Middleton), 108, 290 

Witch, The (Wiers-Jennsen), 311-2 

Witch of Edmonton, The (Ford and 
Dekker), 102, 290-2, 308 

Witch of Islington, The, 304 

Witch Traveller, The, 304 

Witchcraft forbidden in the Bible, 
181-2 

World tost at Tennis, The, Masque, 9, 
10, 278 

Wright, Elizabeth, 75-6 

Wright, Katherine, 225-6 


Zoroastres, 302 






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tite HISTORY ‘OF 
CIVILIZATION 


A COMPLETE HISTORY OF MANKIND FROM 
PREHISTORIC TIMES TO THE PRESENT 
DAY IN UPWARDS OF 200 VOLUMES 
DESIGNED TO FORM A COMPLETE 
LIBRARY OF SOCIAL EVOLUTION 


Editor: C. K. OGDEN, of Magdalene College, Cambridge 
Consulting American Editor : Professor HARRY ELMER BARNES. 


A, PRE-HISTORY AND ANTIQUITY 


I InrropuctTIon AND Pre-History 


*Social Organization W. H.R. Rivers 
The Earth Before History E. Perrier 
Prehistoric Man JF. de Morgan 

*The Dawn of European Civilization V. Gordon Childe 
A Linguistic Introduction to History JF. Vendryes 
A Geographical Introduction to History L. Febvre 
Race and History E. Pittard 
*The Aryans V. Gordon Childe 
From Tribe to Empire A. Moret 
*Woman’s Place in Simple Societies JF. L. Myers 
*Cycles in History F. L. Myers 
*The Diffusion of Culture G. Elliot Smith 
*The Migration of Symbols D. A. Mackenzie 

I] Tue Earry Empires 
The Nile and Egyptian Civilization A. Moret 

*Colour Symbolism of Ancient Egypt D. A. Mackenzie 
The Mesopotamian Civilization L. Delaporte 
The Aigean Civilization G. Glotz 

III Greece 
The Formation of the Greek People A. Fardé 

*Ancient Greece at Work G. Glotz 
The Religious Thought of Greece C. Sourdille 
The Art of Greece W. Deonna and A. de Ridder 
Greek Thought and the Scientific Spirit L. Robin 
The Greek City and its Institutions G. Glotz 
Macedonian Imperialism P. Fouguet 


* An asterisk denotes that the volume does not form part of the French collection, 
L' Evolution del’ Humanité. 


IV Rome 


Ancient Italy L. Homo 
The Roman Spirit in Religion, Thought, and Art 4. Grenter 
Roman Political Institutions L. Homo 
Rome the Law-Giver F. Declareuil 
Ancient Economic Organization F. Toutain 
The Roman Empire V. Chapot 
*Ancient Rome at Work P. Louts 
The Celts H. Hubert 
V Beyonp THE Roman EMPIRE 
Germany and the Roman Empire H. Hubert 
Persia C. Huart 
Ancient China and Central Asia _ M. Granet 
*A Thousand Years of the Tartars E. H. Parker 
India (Ed.) S. Lévt 
*The Heroic Age of India N. K. Sidhanta 
*Caste and Race in India G. S. Ghurye 
*The Life of Buddha as Legend and History E. H. Thomas 


CHRISTIANITY AND THE MIDDLE AGES 


I Tue Oricins or CHRISTIANITY 


Israel and Judaism A. Lods 
Jesus and the Birth of Christianity C. Guignebert 
The Formation of the Church C. Guignebert 
The Advance of Christianity C. Guignebert 
*History and Literature of Christianity P. de Labriolle 


Il Tue Break-up OF THE EMPIRE 


The Dissolution of the Western Empire F, Lot 
The Eastern Empire F C. Diebl 
Charlemagne L. Halphen 
The Collapse of the Carlovingian Empire F. Lot 
The Origins of the Slavs (Ed.) P. Boyer 
*Popular Life in the East Roman Empire N. Baynes 
*The Northern Invaders B. S. Phillpotts 
III Rezicrous ImpERIALism 
Islam and Mahomet E. Doutté 
The Advance of Islam L. Barrau-Dthigo 
Christendom and the Crusades P. Alphandéry 


The Organization of the Church R. Genestal 


IV Tue Art or THE Mippie Aces 


The Art of the Middle Ages P. Lorquet 
*The Papacy and the Arts E. Strong 


V ReconstTiTuTION oF Monarcnic Power 


VI 


Vil 


VIII 


The Foundation of Modern Monarchies C. Petit-Dutaitllis 


The Growth of Public Administration E. Meynial 
The Organization of Law E. Meynial 
SocrAL AND Economic EvoLuTIon 

The Development of Rural and Town Life G. Bourgin 
Maritime Trade and the Merchant Gilds P. Botssonnade 
*Life and Work in Medieval Europe P. Botssonnade 
*The Life of Women in Medieval Times Etleen Power 


*Travel and Travellers of the Middle Ages (Ed.) 4. P. Newton 


INTELLECTUAL EVOLUTION 

Education in the Middle Ages G. Huisman 
Philosophy in the Middle Ages E. Bréhter 
Science in the Middle Ages Abel Rey and P. Boutroux 
From tHe Mippie Acts to Mopern ‘Times 
Nations of Western and Central Europe P. Lorquet 
Russians, Byzantines, and Mongols (Ed.) P. Boyer 
The Birth of the Book G. Renaudet 
*The Grandeur and Decline of Spain C’. Hughes Hartmann 
*The Influence of Scandinavia on England M. E. Seaton 
*The Philosophy of Capitalism T. L£. Gregory 
*The Prelude to the Machine Age D. Russell 
*Life and Work in Modern Europe G. Renard 


A special group of volumes will be devoted to 


(1) 


Suspyect Histori£s 


*The History of Medicine C. G. Cumston 
*The History of Money T. E. Gregory 
*The History of Costume M. Hiler 
*The History of Witchcraft M. Summers 
*The History of Taste F. Lsaac 
*The History of Oriental Literature E. Powys Mathers 
*The History of Music Cecil Gray 
(2) Hisrorrcat ETHNoLocy | 
*The Ethnology of India T. C. Hodson 
*The Peoples of Asia L.H. Dudley Buxton 
*The Threshold of the Pacific C. £. Fox 


*The South American Indians Rafael Karsten 


In the Sections devoted to MODERN HISTORY the majortty of titles 
will be announced later. Many volumes are, however, in active preparation, 


and of these the first to be published will be 


*The Restoration Stage M, Summers 
*London Life in the Eighteenth Century M. Dorothy George 
*China and Europe in the Eighteenth Century A. Reichwein 


The New York Times calls this series “ An adventure in letters and learning 
whose range is so audacious as to challenge the imagination to conceive it in its 
full implication. . . . A new type of vision on the whole perspective of 
historical science.” : 


The Chicago Evening Post: ‘The scope is to be comprehensive and the 
performance so far has been brilliant. Mr. Knopf will have done the public an 
invaluable service by thus putting at its disposal an authoritative history of the 
world, entirely in English, each field covered by a man who has mastered it. 

The History of Civilization ought to prove a force not only in the spread 
of knowledge, but in the propagation of international good-will.” 


James T. Shotwell writes : ‘The History of Civilization, edited by Mr. Ogden 
of Magdalene College, Cambridge, marks a new stage in the History of History. 
Hitherto we have had co-operative surveys of sections of European History, but 
they have all suffered from limitations of space. The various contributors have 
been obliged by the editors to put into a chapter material which ordinarily would 
call for a whole volume. This great History leaves the author a real freedom 
to cover his subject adequately, and once this is granted, the chief editorial 
problem is to secure the outstanding authority in the particular subject. The 
list of authors in this series could hardly be bettered. Each writer can bring a 
distinct contribution apart from the data with which he deals ; each great phase 
of human evolution is presented here in a masterful survey and fits well into the 
general synthesis. 

“Turning from the special volumes to the work as a whole, one finds a con- 
ception of history which corresponds to the demands of those interested in the 
social and intellectual development of Europe, while alongside of it the political 
story still furnishes the traditional framework. It is a living picture of a vast 
movement, splendidly conceived and sure to be adequately executed.” 











Date Due 












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